Alexander: victims’ support money must be well-directed

United Future’s law and order spokesman, Marc Alexander, is pleased the Budget will see another $1.5 million directed towards victims’ support groups, but is concerned that it be directed towards victims themselves and not just another bureaucracy.

“It’s plain that many of the initiatives foreshadowed in the Victims’ Rights legislation have yet to be implemented, for example the need for better communication between victims and the justice system.

“In the past few weeks, we’ve had the situation where the family of a murder victim was forced to attend a parole hearing on the anniversary of the death of their family member. That was an appalling failure of the system and a signal that a great deal more needs to be achieved in making victims, and not the perpetrators of crime, central to our justice system,” he said.

Ends

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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>>