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- Voters may switch off at election time
- Hinch details the OPI mess
- Hinch Blog: Has Overland given up?
- P-platers spared demerit points
- Hinch's message: 'Do something!'
- Do we have a 'boat people' policy'?
- Penalty for 'train wreck' mum slammed
- How to remember Black Saturday?
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What we're talking about
- jason on Hinch gives murderer a call in cell What a joke as if we did'nt know that was mehmet on the other end of the phone.Does this scumbag actually realizes the ... more
- Stephanie Joanne Fenton on Hinch Blog: Has Overland given up? No Overland has not given up. He is an intelligent man with many attractions. One however is not as the police commissioner ... more
- Gaetan on Hinch tackles Brivis horror stories had a Brivis aircon,3 phase large unit (model 38cda15-9) feeding ducts into 12 rooms, installed before xmas, Has not worked ... more
- Bryan on Dr Sabi Lal - why is he still allowed ... As I'm sure none of you have read the case or the judgements, the 'rape' was a pap smear test. There was no sexual ... more
- Bozo on Hinch's message: 'Do something!' Hull's is a pathetic soft lefty moron that is far more concerned for the criminal than the victim. His record over the last ... more
- Alison Dennehy on Penalty for 'train wreck' mum slammed Any time a judge disregards right and wrong like this, I always wonder why. Makes you wonder what sort of person that ... more
- andrew on Do we have a 'boat people' policy'? Rufus you are a complete clown and I suggest you have never run a business and employed staff. You probably are employed by ... more
- Pam Crosbie on Do we have a 'boat people' policy'? Derryn how can these refugees afford to pay $16,533 each after travelling by air from jaffna to Malaysia, costing more ... more
- Rufus Wollon on Do we have a 'boat people' policy'? When you use the phrase "labor shortage" or "skills shortage" you're speaking in a sentence fragment. What you actually mean ... more
- Sandy on Hinch on '80 being the new 60' No need to personally attack one another. All circumstances are different for everyone. I think all of us are going to ... more
- Bert on Penalty for 'train wreck' mum slammed I know precisely why they hand out suspended sentences like lollies, its all to do with MONEY yes MONEY to keep a moron like ... more
- Lynne on Hinch on '80 being the new 60' Good on you Nick !! Feb 2nd We baby boomers are not working because of greed ....most of us have had to hand feed you ' ... more
- John on Hinch tackles Brivis horror stories I have a 2004 Brevis coutour with, a dual controler, which has never worked properly. It turns on cools for five minutes ... more
- Broken on Hinch on '80 being the new 60' All us tradesman can't wait to be still laying bricks at 80 years of age. Really for us younger folk starting out in the ... more
- Dan on When will Brumby address real issues? Neil, Why did you let Mr Brumby off the hook when he was quite clearly talking garbage, or didn't you realise? Mr Brumby ... more
- peter on Hinch tackles Brivis horror stories to joe wed 27th jan they were probably looking at an elbow on the water feed system.mine let go the second time we used it ... more
- Nick on Hinch on '80 being the new 60' Here we go again, baby boomers not wanting to give up working because of greed. On eproblem that is not being talked about ... more
- Leanne Di Tondo on When will Brumby address real issues? Yet another day wasted trying to get myki working and Mr Brumby thinks he has a chance at the next election.I dont think so! more
- Stephanie Fenton on When will Brumby address real issues? I wonder if Victorian's are better off now than they were when Bracks and Brumby were elected? So many promises; so many ... more
- Lenny on When will Brumby address real issues? Luke, back in about 2006, I was probably the most outspoken person (in the biggest live chat room) regarding the war in ... more
Should we kill the death penalty?
I believe that if such a question were put at a referendum it would pass by a vote of about 70% to 30. But it will never be put. And I raise it again today because the gederal government is making moves to ban capital punishment in this country forever.
Technically, the death penalty is a state issue. The last person executed in Australia was Ronald Ryan in Melbourne in 1966 - more than forty years ago.
But if a state tried to bring back the death penalty and execute creatures like Martin Bryant and Julian Knight and the killers of Anita Cobby the Federal Government would intervene.
That's what the Rudd Government is trying to do now. The Federal Attorney-General has written to his state and territory counterparts telling him what the government intends to do.
Robert McClelland has told them the Government will introduce new legislation to ban the death penalty nationwide. They will invoke the external affairs power in the Constitution. The same one used to block the damming of the Franklin River in Tasmania.
But in the debate agead you will hear a lot of hypocrisy from death penalty opponents. And that includes all Labor premiers. And it included the former Howard Government.
It was obvious during the final days of the Bali bombers. At the time I said good riddance. It can't come quickly enough. They lost their rights to mercy and even a skerrick of sympathy when they seet those bombs that killed more than 200 innocent people.
But when you tried to get either Prime Minister Rudd or Premier Brumby to say they should be spared you were met with silence.
In opposition Rudd said as Prime Minister he would fight to save the lives of Australians on Death Row overseas. But he wouldn't intervene over convicted terrorists.
Back the McClelland was shadow Foreign Affairs Minister. He was honest and said that under a Rudd Government Australia would oppose the death penalty in all circumstances. Even for killers like Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden.
His speech was cleared by Kevin Rudd but he was then abandoned when the Labor pollsters realised it was not a good look so close to the fifth anniversary of the Bail bombings. Rudd rebuked his Shadow Minister and described his comments as 'highly insensitive'.
And if you argue that you didn't oppose the execution of the Bali bombers out of respect for the victims' families then what about the families of those slaughtered by Julian Knight and Martin Bryant?
I believe the death penalty should be available for certain crimes. And when there is no doubt, not just beyond reasonable doubt, about a killer's guilt.
A person who abducts, rapes and murders a child should face the death penalty. A person who kidnaps, rapes and murders a woman. A person who kills a witness to protect his own identity, a cop killer, a serial killer. A Knight or a Bryant.
They have forfeited the right to remain in this world. Even behind bars.
And when prime ministers and premiers say the opposition is bi-partisan and that they speak for the majority... well count me out. On this issue they don't speak for me.
Blog comments
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Once we get rid of All State Governments we can have new laws,
col Monday 6 July, 2009 - 6:12 PM -
hot topic but i think it should remain up to the states. i think it should apply to certain crimes and only when it is proven conclusively like the bryant case or the knight case. when the killings or crimes are caught on video and there is absolutely no doubt then... yes, capital punishment. but i do not believe in the lethal injection. it should be by hanging or electric chair or gas chamber. it shouldn't be an easy thing to have done at all. it should be something to fear for crimes like those.
dingo Monday 6 July, 2009 - 12:35 AM -
Probably the one section of Victoria Police that really amuses me is the Ethical Standards Department, a follow-up from B11. One of the most amusing historical events was the Beach Inquiry 1975 (no reflection on Beach himself). Fifty-five members were charged and NOT one single conviction. Truly amazing~! That event alone summed up the integrity of internal Police investigations~! Corruption has been rampant in Victoria Police since the year dot! In the early 60's a Bendigo Police Superintendent and 3 sergeant equivalents were investigated in relation to a hotel protection racket. They were all shanghaied back to Russell Street, but the whole incident was swept under the carpet. We had a Police sergeant in the early 70's whose colourful interviewing techniques were well known throughout the force (not surprisingly was mentioned at the Beach Inquiry). These techniques included placing a suspect in a clothing locker and launching the locker down a flight of stairs from the first floor, the old 'truth serum' trick - the introduction of a horse needle during the interview procedure, and the old faithful lie detector test - a telephone electricity generator & wires being attached to specific parts of the body. The END result does NOT justify the means~! We also had another group of detectives who hung suspects out of a 1st floor window during the interview process, until someone was accidentally dropped~! During the 70's & early 80's we also had the Chief Superintendent under investigation by the NCA for prostitution, located in close proximity to the Chief Commissioner's Office. Let's NOT get into Police credibility and ethics~!
Lenny Saturday 4 July, 2009 - 11:44 AM -
Even when you go back to the Ronald Ryan case, there is still massive debate over whether HIS bullet actually killed the guard. The tiangulatons never matched up~! Ryan was a political decision~!
Lenny Saturday 4 July, 2009 - 10:09 AM -
Why should my taxes pay to keep people like Julian Knight in jail?????
Tom Friday 3 July, 2009 - 11:39 PM -
of course Hinch thinx that way, i will never forget his blather when Barlow & Chambers were hung. A good point was raised about Lindy Chamberlain, how many innocents would have been murdered in that kind of case? I know of a few in history.
deb Friday 3 July, 2009 - 6:54 PM





