Keep them in prison, not on drugs

‘Chemical castration’ plans by Justice Minister, Phil Goff, show the incredible lengths this Government will go to avoid putting dangerous offenders behind bars, says National’s Police spokesman Tony Ryall.

"The reason we have prisons is to keep these sorts of people off the streets. They belong behind bars.

"The best way to protect the children of New Zealand is to keep these criminals in prison. The Government cannot understand that these individuals have destroyed their right to live in the community.

"This is another plan to have paedophiles living back in the community.

"There's very little evidence that anti-libido drugs actually reduce reoffending. A man on a high dose of such a drug sexually attacked a young man in November 2000. Like methadone, drug treatments only work if there is a will to stop reoffending.

"If the Government is serious about stopping repeat child sex offenders then the best way is to keep them in prison away from children. Releasing people into the community with a course of pills is not going to work," said Mr Ryall.

© Scoop Media

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>>