"Labour supports the intention of the Crimes [Home Invasion] Amendment Bill but will vote against it because the legislation is a nonsense and will not work," Labour Justice Spokesperson Phil Goff said today.

"I urge the Government, and the MPs it relies upon for a majority in the House, to instead support my Private Members' Bill which proposes a much simpler and less anomalous change to the law.

"My bill states that the court must regard it as a serious aggravating factor in determining the length of the sentence if the offender committed the crime in the victim's home or on the property in which the home is situated.

"This is similar to the advice offered to the Select Committee by Crown Prosecutor and Law Commission member Tim Brewer.

"It avoids the definitional problems and the bizarre anomalies created by the Government's approach.

"The man who murdered Christopher Crean by shooting him therough the glass front door of his home
would not, for example, have met the definition of a home invader in the Government's Bill. Neither would a rapist who chased his victim out of her home and raped her in the backyard or the garage rather than the house.

"Labour believes that MPs as legislators have a duty to ensure the laws they pass are effective and achieve what they set out to achieve - even in an election year," Mr Goff said.

© 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>>