1 July 2004

It's A Point Of Principle

New Zealand First opposed the Parole (Extended Supervision) and Sentencing Amendment Bill because it will not work and high risk sex offenders will be back roaming the country, says New Zealand First Law and Order spokesperson Ron Mark.

“Under no circumstances should high risk sex offenders – who by definition are those most likely to re-offend – be freely allowed back into the community through feeble parole laws,” Mr Mark said.

“Paedophiles and violent sex offenders require constant supervision when their sentence is finished. Their crimes demonstrate the threat they pose to society and they must never be placed in a situation which would allow them to re-offend. “Has this government and National not learnt the lessons of the growing re-offending rates among violent sexual offenders – even by those supposedly under electronic monitoring?

“Only New Zealand First’s policy of constant supervision for violent sex offenders will work – anything less leaves our children openly exposed to these offenders. The vile acts these people have committed ensures that they must never be removed from the gaze of the authorities.

“Only a soft on crime government (and an equally negligent National party) would even contemplate letting these despicable offenders into the community by passing lax parole laws which lack the resources to be enforced,” said Mr Mark.

ENDS

© 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>>