Cash For Witnessing Truamatic Event Not An Option - Cullen

Minister for Accident Insurance Michael Cullen today issued a clarification regarding a proposal by which people who had witnessed an extremely traumatic event could receive counselling.

Dr Cullen said the decision has been made not to include compensation for witnessing a traumatic event in the new Injury Prevention and Rehabilitation Bill, which is expected to become law later this year, because it would be too hard to monitor.

However, Dr Cullen said that while the issue is not included in the proposed legislation, Labour Department officials had been looking at the possiblity of a setting up a special fund to provide counselling for those exceptional instances which fall outside the counselling services already offered by Victim Support to witnesses of homicides.

Dr Cullen said no decisions on the options being considered have been made at this point and no futher work has been undertaken and he stressed that the possiblity of paying actual compensation to witnesses of truamatic events was not under consideration and that any future assistance would be by way of counselling only.

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>