Rob Hulls makes a Joke

Two small party candidates were beaten by what they termed "labor thugs" during the last campaign to prevent them from campaigning. The story was one of the sidebars in the Herald Sun. The Age didn't touch it. Wonder why?

Victorian Attorney-General Rob Hulls fills three columns in today's Herald Sun with an essay about the plight of David Hicks. The essay was quoted in The Age under "Ruddock accused of being 'gutless, toadlike'":

"It is clear beyond argument that Australia has abandoned him to his fate. It is one of the most disgraceful things in this nation's recent history that the country's chief law officer is willing to adopt the insouciant attitude which he has to the fate of David Hicks."

Rob Hulls, who has sat - gutless, toadlike - along with his whole Justice Department while men and families have been demeaned and destroyed for years by the tens of thousands across Victoria is very brave about attacking Philip Ruddock from afar. His voice is already years too late to matter, of course, although it politically anticipates the resolution of the Hicks affair - and attempts to take some credibility from it.

Philip Ruddock has proven himself an effective and courageous federal Attorney-General who has stepped forward to deal with difficult and complex matters within Australia and around the world.
Hulls should attend to matters within his own purview first. His time as Gaming Minister was appalling. Few Caribbean contortionists could have bent so far under the bar repeatedly to please special interests. He has taken that same talent to Justice, where it can only do much greater long-term harm.
Hulls has done nothing to make Victoria proud of its current Justice Department. It has become a tool of denial and obfuscation for the political advancement of Steve Bracks, and nothing more.

David Hicks is a festering wart
There is little in the David Hicks affair for anyone to take pride in. He was found, armed and guarding a tank in Afghanistan for the Taliban, still an Australian citizen. - If he had shot a few Australians, would the public still chant for his release? One has to wonder.
As an Australian citizen bearing arms against his own countrymen and the Commonwealth, he should be a traitor. But Australia has no laws to govern such treason. Perhaps the most significant reason he has to be tried in the US is that there are no grounds to charge or try him here. If anything, he could be tried under British law - since he is now a British citizen - and simply hung.

As a person, one cannot help but feel for his father who saw his foolish child run off to an 'adventure' and become enbroiled in a war. The measure of a father's love for his child is shown in this man's face. He has not relented in any way.

But you will not find Hulls applauding any father, that might put him in an awkward position with his political constituencies. Hulls has created a state court system where the father is not just blamed for all the problems of a breakup, but is condemned as a criminal for even trying to defend himself - verbally, in court, or any other way.
In Hulls' Justice system, if a man responds to abuse or assault, the man is arrested.
Rob Hulls wouldn't know decency or justice if it came in name brands.

One can only assume that Mr Hulls was seized the opportunity to do a satire, to make a joke of the whole affair and himself, by publishing such a diatribe. But that might be giving Mr Hulls credit where it is not due.