A Lot Better Show

Australian politics is still the longest running comedy show around.
On page 25 of the Herald Sun today:

Mr Hulls said a responsible government must have the maturity to acknowledge flaws in the system.

“The government recognizes that within an otherwise solid foundation a crack has developed.: a growing disparity between the law’s application and the public’s perception of the criminal process,” he said. -- from ‘To Jail or not to Jail – Laws force choice”, same page

About here I began to wonder if Mr Hulls was going to move to “firm up” the gaping holes in Family Law and Intervention Orders. It’s a lot more than a crack, Mr Hulls.
Maybe the next story would be about a new law that condemned the “mandatory and necessary” perjury built into the system? – Then I noticed the part about the public’s perception again.
The story goes on:

The new orders …(will) make sentencing far more transparent, in the (Sentencing Advisory Council’s) view, far more accountable, (Hulls) said.

Well that pretty much answers that. In Hull doublespeak, where there is no accountability from his Justice Department, something was missing. And then I noticed a story in the right hand corner of the same page called, -- from “Affair ruined my girl – mum”, and the last paragraph:

“(Attorney General) Rob Hulls was dragged kicking and screaming to make this change,and we applaud the report.”, Mr Medcraft (of People Against Lenient Sentencing) said.

Mandatory sentencing is attractive considering the ridiculous and inconsistent judgments handed down by the “independent” magistracy.
In Melbourne, the criminal courts set aside two days a week to hear Intervention Order cases, Thursday and Friday. The magistrates rush through 2000-4000 such cases each week. In the suburb of Frankston, the courts have only set aside one day to hear the 40-60 cases each week; though they’re considering adding another day.

“Mandatory sentencing takes away the capacity for human reasoning and discretion thatis a crucial part of our justice system.” – from “Beep! You go to jail”, by Anthony Kelly and Pauline Spencer on pg 23

The problem, Ms Spencer and Mr Kelly, is that the magistrates will expedite things where they can. And since there is no oversight on them from Mr Hulls’ Justice Department, and they know the prevailing political wind (however foul) protects them from the small problems of perjury and best evidence in Intervention Order cases, they just make the simple and easy determinations – by excluding evidence.
These folks who get named to be magistrates have not proven their ability to be trusted with human reasoning and discretion.

My head was kinda playing with the idea that Mr Hulls’ mind was like a steel trap: rusted shut, when I saw this quote:

“It’s a lump of solid iron with a few holes in it.”

… and realized that this did indeed describe Mr Hulls’ attitude much better.
‘Course, that quote was from a representative of Bohler-Udderholm about slicing up a 1.2 tonne meteorite a couple of pages later…