For 20 years the NSW Crime Commission went about its business with drugs quietly. When it scored a bust, it stood back and let politicians and the police bask in credit. But all that changed with the sensational arrest of the commission’s assistant director, Mark Standen, on charges of trafficking drugs. His spectacular downfall threw a spotlight onto the Crime Commission’s remarkable array of powers and how it abuses them. Secret hearings, witnesses compelled to answer questions, broad powers of search and surveillance, no independent review process…

To its backers, Woomera detention centre played a so-called “humane yet crucial role in housing the growing numbers of ‘boat people’ landing on Australia’s shores.” To its critics, this prison, as a heavily guarded cluster of buildings ringed by red desert and razor wire, represented the “dead-heart of asylum-seeker policy” and Australia’s lacklustre regard for human rights. Woomera opened for business less than four years ago. Built for 400 people, it soon housed more than 1,400. It became notorious for riots, protests and breakouts by desperate detainees. There were reports that mental illness and self-harm were rife and as the reports mounted, TV cameras captured the protests at the perimeter fence. Certain press warned of detainees’ declining health and morale. Yet when Woomera was quietly placed in mothballs last month, its full story remained to be told…