Court System and Convictions
Without an effective state legal system that can be enforced, and with the state justice system reduced to a scant minimum, the Tearmann Metropolitan Council did what most Australian cities have done; created their own from pre-existing legal foundations. There remain grey areas and doubts about the legality of some policies. Following conviction in council court, the convicted are still called “The accused” and are then sent to a state criminal court. The state judges will usually be quick, they don’t have time to muck around, plus the evidence of the accused being guilty of the crime by this point is likely cut and dried. State criminal courts get it over and done with inside of 5 to 15 minutes except for the serious cases such as murder. Murder trials continue to require a jury in a state court.
The system is clumsy as a legal work-around, yet very fast. The council courts give only 3 days for the prosecution and the defence to prepare their case evidence. There are no delays allowed. It’s get it done properly and on time, or get your case tossed out. Every conviction can be overturned on appeal, but only the state courts deal with appeals and they’re very slow in dealing with them; people can be convicted and sent to prison in mere days, but an appeal is nearly always going to require a year or more. The appeal system is that slow, only a handful of convictions have been overturned since this new system began.
Tearmann Metropolitan Council’s courts have no say in where a convicted criminal is sent, nor do they decide for how long the sentence is. Sentences are decided only by judges of the state courts. In practical terms, the council’s courts conviction of an accused person is saying “We believe this person committed these crimes”, and the state courts can then say “We’ll probably agree because likely your decision is well supported so let’s check it out” then if they agree to convict – as they nearly always do – then the state judge writes the sentence.
Prisons
Tearmann Metropolitan Council owns no prisons, nor are their any actual “state prisons” in New South Wales in this world. All of the so-called “state” prisons are privately operated. None are nice places to be sent to. The Neo-Humanists and other social welfare oriented political groups want to close down the private prisons, returning back to the government-run prisons that existed before. There’s no possible way this can happen in the foreseeable future as the state governments don’t have the money to spare for it. Neither does the Australian national government. Nor any of the shire councils, town councils, city councils, or metropolitan councils.
Mental Health
The collapse of the national and state welfare finances also removed the subsidies that went to the “psychiatric” institutions. The state courts were nearly entirely shutdown. The money that used to go towards psychiatry from the government disappeared. Adding to this misery for the “industry”, insurance corporations and banks were collapsing in the chaos besetting the entire economy. The legality and scientific basis for psychiatric diagnosis had been under attack for decades, but significant reduction of their power wouldn’t begin until the money started to disappear. The pharmaceutical industry continues to fund the bribes and influence of psychiatry, but all of the “mental hospitals” are gone.
Enforced involuntary institutionalisation (abducting people and forcing them onto drugs) has disappeared.
The H.A.M.D. and Adpaxin scandal of 2026 A.D. brought a greater intensity of public scepticism against psychiatry than it ever had to at any previous time to deal with since the 1950s. Courts in Tearmann are under strong public pressure to doubt the claims of psychiatrists. The Tearmann Metropolitan Council has since 2026 A.D. passed an ordinance forbidding the police from cooperation with psychiatrists who attempt to force anyone to take drugs against the patient’s will. Medical doctors likewise can’t force a patient to take any drug without legal consent given by either the patient or legal guardian — and the legal guardian must be a “blood relative” or “relative by marriage”, never a corporation or other unrelated entity.
Signed consent of the patient and/or legal guardian is always required. In January 2027 A.D., the New South Wales state government passed both a similar law and another that removed the right of any hospital, corporation, company, or non-relative (through either blood relation or as marriage partner) from having legal guardian status. Thus closing a unethical legal loophole that had been abused by medical corporations for decades.
Sexual Age of Consent
The law in the Commonwealth of Australia in the World of the Awakening (Circa 2027 A.D.) is that the sexual Age of Consent for heterosexual sexual activities is;
For females, 12 years old or their first menarche, whichever is higher, with the acceptance (permission) from a parent or guardian until the age of 15.
For males, 12 years old or their first ejaculation, whichever is higher, with the acceptance (permission) from a parent or guardian until the age of 15.
For both males and females, from 15 years old there is no need for permission nor acceptance (from parents or guardians) and they can fully consent to all heterosexual sexual activities.
Male-male homosexual relationships – not merely sexual activity alone – aren’t allowed until the Age of Majority, setting the male homosexual Age of Consent at 21 years of age.
Female-female sexual activities aren’t specifically defined as requiring the permission of a parent or guardian, only that the Age of Consent is 12 years old or from menarche, whichever is higher. The less than clear definition has been left to the courts in each state of the Commonwealth to decide.
The law further includes that sexual activities which are medically recognised as disproportionately harmful to the participants can’t be consented to, and are prohibited; the list includes anal sex among others such as bestiality.
Censorship
Currently in 2027 A.D., the C.M.C.O & C.M.O. are the two offices of the Commonwealth government that are responsible for deciding upon what is, and isn’t appropriate to show the public in the news and entertainment media. The Commonwealth Media Commissioner’s Office enforces the national policies according to the law, while the Commonwealth Media Ombudsman investigates disputes over what is and isn’t shown. Their offices are small, their staffs are a mere handful, and their budgets are unreliably varying from year to year. Therefore only the most excessive, most overt rule-breaking products from the media receive attention.
Family Classification: F
Real video & motion-capture film are strictly prohibited from showing; male genitals, female inner labia, pubic hair, anus, defecation sex, urination sex, bestiality, male-male fellatio, the insertion of anything into the anus, acts even hinting of sodomy, fart fetishes (can’t even be hinted at), actual sexual intercourse. Acts of violence can’t show realistic blood, limbs removed, decapitations, or mutilation torture of any kind.
Additionally, no real video or film of real (non-actor) people on Australian beaches. Only actors, actresses, and models are allowed to be shown and this must be clearly stated unless the video/film is clearly recognised as for entertainment only. The models, actors, actresses are also restricted to wearing no less than regular swimwear as seen commonly on beaches fifty years before. No thong swimwear, mini or microkini, or similar. For real beaches, the background and other bystanders must be either blurred or pixellated until the individuals are objectively unidentifiable “even to a close relative.”
Still images are slightly less strictly controlled. These are permitted to show actors, actresses, models in mini-bikini, thong, microkini or nude on any Australian beach as long as they don’t breach the other rules.
Computer graphics and other fictional artworks are less controlled also, similar to that for still images.
Mature Classification: M12
The mature classification products are only permitted to be seen by persons of age 12 years or older. Except for allowing the showing of male genitals and female labia, it is otherwise identical to the Family Classification. Showing of pubic hair remains prohibited. Acts of violence are permitted to show realistic blood and mild mutilation torture, but not limbs removed, nor decapitations, nor extreme bloody torture of any kind.
Restricted Classification: R21
Can only be seen by, or sold to persons of 21 years of age or older. Anus can be shown, but with nothing inserted, nor can it be the main focus. Pubic hair, female labia, male genitals, and legal sexual acts can be shown. Illegal sex acts can never be shown; this includes defecation sex, urination sex, bestiality, male-male fellatio, the insertion of anything into the anus, acts even hinting of sodomy, fart fetishes (can’t even be hinted at), sexual intimacies with children, snuff (killing for sex), or anything sexual which is also medically considered disproportionately dangerous to either partner. Acts of violence are permitted to show realistic blood, limbs removed, and bloody torture – but both decapitation and extreme torture remain forbidden.
Blacklisted at all times: decapitation, extreme torture, defecation sex, urination sex, bestiality, male-male fellatio, the insertion of anything into the anus, acts even hinting of sodomy, fart fetishes (can’t even be hinted at), sexual intimacies with children, snuff (killing for sex), or anything sexual which is also medically considered disproportionately dangerous to either partner.
The Awakening: An Erotic Horror Novel series 