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There was big news in Australia this week, with Cardinal George Pell’s second trial on sexual abuse charges failing to advance and the lifting of the suppression order in his case.

Finally, we were able to share online the full version of a story we had published only in print after he was convicted in December.

We’ll have more on Cardinal Pell when he’s sentenced, but it’s clear that his case is one of many causing Australians to question how the courts handle sexual assault.

I talked to many more victims than I was able to quote in my story this week about secrecy and sexual violence cases, and what I heard again and again was frustration and fear. Frustration with a system that, in the view of many, overindulges defendants while treating victims as little more than a nuisance, and fear that something they said would lead to a defamation suit or some other legal trouble.

“I’m still afraid,” said Susan Prince, an independent theater director in Cairns, who was sued for defamation by her ex-husband after she told an ABC interviewer in 2016 that she had been a victim of domestic violence. “I wonder if by saying this to you if that is going to restart the case.”

Like many others I spoke to, Ms. Prince decided to take the risk, anyway. Women in particular (the vast majority of sexual assault victims) are driving a powerful resistance to what they describe as Australia’s “culture of suppression.”

A growing number of sexual assault and harassment victims are demanding that their experiences be recognized, while also pushing for change in the legal system.

The chilling effect of defamation — the way it favors plaintiffs and scares people from coming forward — is cause for concern nationwide. Several states are also confronting calls for a rebalancing of criminal justice toward victims.

In Queensland, for example, lawyers for the Women’s Legal Center and other activists have been lobbying the legislature to include victims’ rights in a bill that lawmakers are considering.

In Tasmania and in the Northern Territory, a campaign called #LetHerSpeak aims to overturn state laws that make it illegal to identify a victim of sexual assault even if the victim consents.

New South Wales is also studying how consent laws work, in the wake of outrage over the case of Saxon Mullins, who said she was raped in a Sydney alleyway, only to have the man involved be acquitted because even though she didn’t consent, he thought she did.

And yet, at this point, there has been little progress. Systemic change is slow, and some women told me that they aren’t sure how much to expect from a male-dominated system that is insular and often overconfident in its own rectitude.

In the case of Cardinal Pell, the issue was secrecy: One judge and a suppression order defined for the world how much could be known about the most senior Vatican official to ever be tried for sexually abusing children.

But, more broadly, the invisibility of the process can hide a multitude of sins.

What’s often invisible to those without direct experience of these kinds of cases, many women said, is that the courts often feel discriminatory rather than fair.

“I used to work at the women’s center in Cairns in the ’80s, and one of the things I’ve found was that the women were always ostracized once they went into court,” Ms. Prince told me. “It didn’t matter if it was domestic violence, rape, or a mom trying to get custody of the kids.”

The challenge now, for many, seems to be clear: Getting Australia’s political class, which has shown that it has its own problems with sexism, to take a hard look at whether that’s true and what might need to change.

Perhaps it’s a subject for a candidate’s forum in the upcoming election?

Now here are our stories of the week.

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2019 Is a Sensitive Year for China. Xi Is Nervous.

Why did Xi Jinping, China’s leader, abruptly summon hundreds of officials to Beijing? In one of his starkest warnings since coming to power in 2012, Mr. Xi told the gathering that “sources of turmoil and points of risk are multiplying.”

His words made clear that especially in 2019 — a year of politically sensitive anniversaries — the party would aggressively quash any signs of protests and dissent.

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How I Ditched My Phone and Unbroke My Brain

We rely on smartphones for every convenience. A Google search saves digging into long-term memory. Scrolling through Instagram offers a crutch in an awkward social scenario.

But what is it doing to our brains? And how do we quit? Our tech columnist Kevin Roose documents a monthlong detox after he finds himself incapable of reading books, watching full-length movies or having long uninterrupted conversations.

Pay attention (if you can).

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New Rembrandts Found. Art-World Feud Ensues.

The New York Times Magazine’s cover story this week involves some twists. A Dutch art dealer didn’t discover a new Rembrandt painting by scouring remote churches or picking through the attics of European country houses. He discovered it while he was going through his mail.

A remarkable story, expertly told.

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Australia and New Zealand

News and features

• Seeking a Fair Trial and a Voice in Sexual Assault Cases. For Victims.: Australia’s justice system shrouds sexual assault cases in secrecy to protect the victims. But some survivors fear retribution if they speak up — not from their abusers, but from the courts.

• The Police Were Called for Help. They Arrested Her Instead.: Over the past decade, laws in Western Australia have sent thousands of people to prison for unpaid fines. Aboriginal women are particularly vulnerable, and in the worst cases, have been arrested when they called 000 for help.

• New Zealand Locks the Doors From the Inside: After watching home prices rise by 60 percent in a decade, the country decided to ban foreigners from buying property. Will it work?

• Billionaire Wins Defamation Case Against Australian Media Group: Chau Chak Wing, a Chinese-Australian billionaire and well-connected political donor in Australia, won a defamation case against Fairfax Media that he claimed had wrongly linked him to a bribery case that implicated a former president of the United Nations General Assembly.

Opinion

• Hakeem al-Araibi: Running From Bahrain’s Dark Side: In the opinion section, the Bahraini soccer player writes of his time in Thai detention. “What kept me going during these dark 76 days? Knowing that the whole world was witnessing the injustice.”

Feed me and give me something to watch …

• The Long Paddock Gets Small-Town Australian Cooking Right: If you’re tired of overly sleek city dining, The Long Paddock is the wholesome, homegrown remedy you desire. Our restaurant critic Besha Rodell reviews the East Gippsland restaurant, which honors locality without pretension.

• The Best Movies and TV Shows New to Netflix Australia in March: All things just keep getting better … “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” is back, so prepare for the tears and avocado memes to follow. Read our full streaming guide for Australia now.

And what the world needs now …

• Tiny Love Stories: Australia Edition: A blurry cockatoo, an airport proposal and an apocalyptic wedding storm. Read bite-size stories of love submitted by our Australian readers, all told in 100 words or less. We had nearly 400(!) submissions from our Australian call-out — read the winning tiny tales now.

And We Recommend …

We told you there were more live New York Times events coming to Australia … and here’s the latest.

The New York Times Crossword Challenge

March 6, Adelaide

Are you a New York Times crossword devotee? Pit your nerdy, wordy skills against fellow attendees at Adelaide Writers Week in our live crossword tournament to win prizes, glory and eternal bragging rights as the inaugural AWW NYT crossword challenge champion.

Free. Event details here.

#MeToo: Year Two

March 10, Sydney

Emily Steel, a New York Times business reporter, will join a panel at the All About Women festival at the Sydney Opera House. What are the next steps in the #MeToo movement to create long-lasting change for women worldwide?

Sohaila Abdulali and Tina Tchen will also join the panel, which will be hosted by The Guardian Australia’s editor, Lenore Taylor.

Book tickets with a 15 percent discount here.

A Delectable Conversation About Food: Sam Sifton and Kylie Kwong at Carriageworks

March 13, Sydney

Sam Sifton, a Times food editor and founding editor of NYT Cooking, and Kylie Kwong, the celebrated chef and restaurateur behind Sydney restaurant Billy Kwong, will talk everything from native ingredients to the evolution of Australian-Chinese cuisine to what’s next for Ms. Kwong. They’ll also be answering your spiciest questions.

Times readers use the code TIMESEVENTS for $15 tickets. Get tickets here.

Sam Sifton at the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival’s Theatre of Ideas

March 9–11, Melbourne

If you’re in Melbourne, be sure to catch Sam Sifton at MFWF’s Theatre of Ideas, where he will appear as a special guest moderator in conversation with local and international talent such as Lune Croissanterie’s Kate Reid and the team from Canada’s Joe Beef restaurant.

Get tickets here.

Damien Cave is the Australia bureau chief for The New York Times. He’s covered more than a dozen countries for The Times, including Mexico, Cuba, Iraq and Lebanon. Follow him on Twitter: @damiencave.

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