For immediate release:

11 years to do the ‘right’ thing

11 years ago today William Bell walked into the Panmure RSA and massacred three innocent people and left Sue Couch mutilated – she was not expected to survive.

But Sue Couch not only survived, the feisty young woman left with permanent brain damage and other horrific injuries took the Department responsible for managing her attacker to Court.

11 years after the cold-blooded gruesome attack – and 7 years after Sue began legal action – the Corrections Department did the ‘right’ thing – they made an out of court settlement for $300, 000.

Sue will never work again, she can’t, she is too badly incapacitated, her injuries will be with her for the rest of her days. Sue will exist for the rest of her life on an invalids benefit, she will never play tennis or mow the lawn, she will never own her own home.

Yet the Corrections Department, the Department responsible for this massacre has the audacity to say it did the ‘right’ thing.
Bill Absolum, Wayne Johnson and Mary Hobson were murdered that day, for their families life will never be the same either.
If the Department of Corrections genuinely wants to do the ‘right’ thing surely they will be talking to these families also.
Or was the $300,000 just hush money, paid to avoid the embarrassment of a Court case and the expose of how shambolic the management of high risk offenders really is and the horrific threat they pose to innocent members of the public.
My heart goes out to everyone who had their lives destroyed on 8th December 2001, 11 years ago today.
11 years they have been waiting.
I am not convinced the Department of Corrections really did do the ‘right’ thing.
Or if they did I certainly don’t believe it was Sue Couch’s well-being they had in mind. ENDS

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Denniston Announcement: Coal Mine Gains Access Approval

Conservation Minister Dr Nick Smith today announced his approval under the Crown Minerals Act for an access agreement for Bathurst Resources for its Escarpment Mining Project on the Denniston Plateau, near Westport.

“This approval is for an open-cast mine on 106 hectares of the 2026 hectares that comprise the Denniston Plateau. This area is not National Park, nor Conservation Park nor does it have any particular reserve status...

“The loss of conservation values is compensated by a $22 million package by Bathurst Resources. This will fund pest and predator control over 25,000 hectares of the Heaphy River catchment in the Kahurangi National Park, 4,500 hectares on and around the Denniston Plateau, as well as for historic projects on the Plateau itself. This is More>>