Good riddance, carr quits?

Australia's most draconian state dictator, bob carr, announced his surprise resignation as New South Wales premier and his departure from state politics.

carr, 58, said his resignation as state premier, after 10 years in the job, and as the state member for the Sydney beachside seat of Maroubra, after 22 years in parliament, would take effect from next Wednesday.

He told reporters that he and his wife Helena decided only last weekend that it was time for him to quit. But he said he had no plans for retirement. He also declined to nominate a successor and said he had no plans to move to federal politics.

carr, a well-known PR specialist, said he resigned because he wanted to spend more time with his wife enjoying the beauty of Sydney and "more recreation".

But carr is the state's longest-serving 'dictator' who has not boasted about his record prison population, broken down hospitals and public transport failures.

carr even attends the hillsong cult with Prime Loser john hoWARd, despite coming from the other side of the political fence, but now the family that plays together prays together in the same evil church.

He won three elections during his more than 10 years in power, each one with a bigger majority than the last.

federal labor, which has lost the past four national elections and whose incumbent leader kim beazley, a well paid loser, is lagging in the opinion polls again, has repeatedly and unsuccessfully lobbied carr to transfer to the federal arena.

As recently as March this year, carr said he would lead labor to the next state election, due in March 2007.

When asked on Wednesday if he could categorically rule out a move to Canberra, carr replied: "Yes I can."

He refused to speculate on who might replace him.

"I am not going to baptise a successor," he said. "I leave that to my parliamentary colleagues."

A former journalist, carr was elected as member for Maroubra in 1983, and became leader of the state labor Party in 1988, following the defeat of Barrie Unsworth's government.

labor's federal industrial relations spokesman Stephen Smith said Mr carr would be welcome if he decided to move into federal politics.

"If bob carr wanted to come to Canberra he'd be very welcome but I suspect in his first day of retirement he doesn't have that on his mind," he said.

NSW's second-longest serving premier Neville Wran, whose record carr overtook in May, said Mr carr's greatest achievement was to keep winning elections, particularly as his original ambitions lay in Canberra.

"I think bob had his eye on a federal seat and it was largely the defeat of the labor government in 1988 that left the labor Party without a leader and bob was literally drafted into the job as leader of the opposition - a job which I'm certain he didn't relish," wran said.

"People say 'What's his greatest achievement?' I will tell you now, his greatest achievement was to keep on winning elections."

But some of his greatest achievements were the Terrorism (Police Powers) Act, building more prisons, increasing the prison population to a record 9,000 prisoners, playing God and cementing people into prison (for the term of their natural lives), keeping people in prison regardless of their innocence (standing down the Innocence Panel) and the High Risk Management Unit at Goulburn otherwise known as the HARM-U keeping people in isolation indefinitely.

For Bob Carr, sorry seems to be the hardest word

Told to say sorry ... Bob Carr.

NSW Premier Bob Carr today issued a virtual apology to whistleblower nurses in a last ditch effort to avoid being charged with contempt and a possible appearance before the Supreme Court.

But Mr Carr also defended himself over his alleged "insults" to nurse Nola Fraser, saying she had criticised him first. The premier - via his legal representatives - was today hauled before the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) to face the contempt allegations.

But confusion abounds as to whether the commission even has the power to find someone in contempt, with the relevant legislation described as an "oddity" by Commissioner John Clarke and "absurd" by two of the three presenting barristers.

SMH 10 September 2004

My tip is that carr is moving into federal politics.

By Injustice 27 July 05

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DENIS DOES DALLAS:

The Northern Territory Country Liberal Party Opposition leader, Denis Burke, has suffered a political tsunami in the state elections, with a big swing against him in his seat of Brennan.

Denis Burke, the lone Australian political leader who supported the reintroduction of capital punishment in Australia, learned last night that Northern Territory voters are the wiser.

Last night, a thunderous roar went up with predictions that Denis is almost certain to lose his seat to his Labor namesake, James Burke.

Country Liberal Party supporters are at a loss to explain the huge swing against the Liberal Party, saying the swing to Labor is worrying. In contrast, Chief Minister Clare Martin, a strong opponent of capital punishment, has won her seat of Fannie Bay, comfortably.

Let's recap:

In 2003, ACADP conducted a telephone poll with all political leaders across the nation. They were asked whether they would support calls for the reintroduction of capital punishment in Australia. Every political leader from the Liberal, Labor, Democrats, Green and National Parties said they are opposed to the death penalty and would never support its reinstatement.

All but one... the Northern Territory Liberal Opposition Leader, Denis Burke. He was the lone political leader in favour of the reintroduction of capital punishment. Denis said he supported the death penalty in Australia under certain circumstances.

The Northern Territory has the highest Aboriginal incarceration rate in Australia. The United Nations Human Rights Committee and Amnesty International have criticised Denis in the past, for passing legislation on discriminative mandatory sentencing laws.

Within the last two years, ACADP has tried to contact Denis on a number of occasions to discuss the issue of capital punishment. Alas, Denis has never returned our calls. Why?

However, Denis managed to find time to voice his support for the re-introduction of capital punishment on the Derryn Hinch Program on Melbourne Radio 3AW. Hinch, a long time media journalist and supporter of capital punishment is also battling a public outcry over another matter. His days as media journalist now seem numbered.

The Federal Government does not have the power to impose the death penalty on any State or Territory in Australia. But it does have the power to block any State or Territory from reintroducing the death penalty.

Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act - Section 109:---"Inconsistency of laws - When a law of a State is inconsistent with a law of the Commonwealth, the latter shall prevail, and the former shall, to the extent of the inconsistency, be invalid."

The last state politician to seriously venture forth on the reintroduction of capital punishment was former Western Australian state premier, Richard Court. He had to back down in the face of an outcry so great, that he soon said he had been misquoted. He had for some time supported the notion of a referendum for the re-introduction of capital punishment, believing that the public was strongly in favour. To his surprise, he discovered that voters had dumped him out of office at the following state elections.

In a letter to ACADP dated 4/10/2000, Richard Court stated that he had decided against holding a referendum because civilised democratic societies have established courts of law and appellate procedures to prevent the fate of individuals, however unpopular they are, being decided by the unreasoned and unstable force of "public clamour".

Rumour has it, that Denis Burke is now considering moving to Texas.

By ACADP 19 June 05

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AUSTRALIAN COALITION AGAINST DEATH PENALTY
Australian Students Against Capital Punishment
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The Premier Australian Internet
Resource on Capital Punishment

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Three-Strikes law mandatory sentencing

US: First of all, this is not about a simple baseball game.

This is about the most important thing of all, the game of life. The Three-Strikes law (mandatory sentencing for three felony convictions) came into being through fear, manipulation and, yes, full-blown prejudice.

The popular image of the African-American male as a predator continues to fuel this absurd trend, and is hardly likely to be arrested in the short term, that is, save a miraculous transformation of the media, the economy, black male collective organizations and public opinion.

Ever since the 1968 presidential campaign of Richard M. Nixon, the African-American male image has been a useful mobilizer for white votes. With the focus on street crime completely saturating the media through both entertainment and news, or a combination of both, it is not surprising that 90 percent of the American public agrees that crime is a very "serious" problem.

In the August 1995 issue of American Demographics, Cheryl Russell writes that the obsession of the media with providing the "gory" details of crime has increased the public's fear of crime. This is particularly true in regard to the largest "inner-city" areas of the nation, like Los Angeles. It is also well known that Gallup Polls rank cities according to their perceived danger of crime.

In the aftermath of the decline of the military-industrial complex as a result of the end of the Cold War and the rusting of America's industrial heartland, the business of imprisonment looms more importantly. Many, many people realize crime (or the perception of it) is profitable for a wide spectrum of firms. More than two in five Americans have additional locks on their doors, and slightly less than one in five have residential security systems or alarms.

Again, according to Russell, gun sales, Mace and other devices designed against crime have also fueled the tremendous growth of the private security industry. Today, well over $50 billion per year is spent in an industry that employs over 2.5 million guards and consists of over 22 thousand firms.

Private firms now own prisons and utilize inmates as a source of cheap labor. Prisons also represent new jobs and the infusion of new money into some rural communities previously suffering from economical depression. In addition to jobs, prisons fuel a variety of high- and low-tech industries, including surveillance and electronic monitoring, food service, medicine, supplies, health care, drug treatment programs, telecommunications, lenders, architectural firms, and the construction trades (including masonry, fencing, barbed wired, etc.) as the prison industry continues to boom.

The Origins of Three-Strikes Law

Many have traced the popularization of mandatory minimum laws to the Rockefeller Drug Law, enacted in 1973 under West Virginia's then-Gov. Nelson Rockefeller. These laws began the downward spiral of removing the discretion of judges from sentencing.

The Rockefeller Drug Laws incarcerate offenders for 15 years to life for possession of four ounces, or the sale of two ounces, of select controlled substances as Class A felony crimes. These laws provide an individual with the same sentence for possession of a few ounces of illegal drugs as someone convicted of murder, kidnapping or rape.

Enacted in the same year in New York state was the Second Felony law, which adds time onto sentences for second felony offenses, regardless of whether violence was involved. In New York, African Americans and Latinos comprise 93 percent of those incarcerated for drug felonies, while making up only 23 percent of New York's population.

Annually, 35,000 individuals are locked up in New York State for drug felonies. Also, while the Rockefeller and Three-Strikes law impacts society on the state and local levels, federal mandatory minimums have also had a negative impact throughout the country.

In actuality, the Three-Strikes law in California was designed for the most brutal criminals, and as is the case of federal and Rockefeller Drug Laws, meant to get the "kingpins." Instead, these laws are penalizing ordinary offenders with draconian punishments.

Over 65 percent of those imprisoned under Three-Strikes in California are non-violent offenders. According to the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR) and Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund, African-American males sentenced in state courts on felonies receive prison sentences 52 percent of the time, while whites just receive them 34 percent of the time.

The rapidly increasing number of women being locked upnow the fastest growing proportion of America's prison populationis also seen as a cause for alarm.

By Otis L. Cavers posted 26 April 05

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US Challenges of Parole Denials rejected
The California Supreme Court decided Monday to limit sharply the ability of inmates to challenge parole denials, ruling that the parole board has the right to keep a convict in prison simply because of the nature of the crime that sent him there.

He Did Time, So He's Unfit to Do Hair
She has managed to turn life in federal prison into a nifty career move. Her company's stock is soaring, and she has plans for not one but two television shows. It almost makes you wonder why the Enron types are fighting so hard to stay out of jail.

New Strategies for Curbing Recidivism
US: State and federal lawmakers are finally realizing that controlling prison costs means controlling recidivism - by helping newly released people establish viable lives once they get out of jail.

Prison System Fails Women, Study Says
State policies designed for violent men make female offenders' rehabilitation difficult, an oversight panel finds. "If we fail to intervene effectively in the lives of these women and their children now, California will pay the cost for generations to come," said Commissioner Teddie Ray, chairwoman of the subcommittee that produced the report.

Child Offenders on Death Row
The U.S. Supreme Court will soon address the constitutionality of the death penalty for 17-year-old offenders based on scientific research that shows the human brain, particularly for males, continues to evolve in adolescence, reaching biological maturity at 21 or 22. The last regions to develop govern the mental ability to control impulses, planning, consideration of consequences, abstract reasoning and most probably moral judgement.

Race-Based Prison Policy Is Under Justices' Scrutiny
US: WASHINGTON, A California prison policy of temporarily segregating all new and newly transferred inmates by race came under attack at the Supreme Court on Tuesday in a case that pits the justices' tradition of deferring to prison administrators against their dislike of government policies that classify people by race.

Despite Drop in Crime, an Increase in Inmates
US: The number of inmates in state and federal prisons rose 2.1 percent last year, even as violent crime and property crime fell, according to a study by the Justice Department released yesterday.

DNA Evidence of Bipartisanship
Last week the U.S. Congress passed the Justice for All Act, which includes provisions of the Innocence Protection Act. As of this posting, the legislation has not yet been signed by President Bush. Attached is an analysis of the legislation prepared by the Justice Project.

How Denying the Vote to Ex-Offenders Undermines Democracy
For starters, hundreds of thousands of people who are still eligible to vote will not do so this year because they will be locked up in local jails, awaiting processing or trials for minor offenses.

Abu Ghraib, USA
When I first saw the photo, taken at the Abu Ghraib prison, of a hooded and robed figure strung with electrical wiring, I thought of the Sacramento, California, city jail.

Restorative Justice and the Law
To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe."-- Marilyn vos Savant.

Restorative Justice Practices
Restorative Justice Practices of Native American, First Nation and Other Indigenous People of North America. This is part one in a series of articles about restorative justice practices of Native American, First Nation and other indigenous people of North America. The series is not intended to be all-inclusive, but rather a broad thematic overview. A related eForum article, "The Wet'suwet'en Unlocking Aboriginal Justice Program: Restorative Practices in British Columbia, Canada," can be read at:

From Terrell Unit in Texas to Abu Ghraib Doesn't It Ring a (Prison) Bell If the president wasn't so forthright about his disinterest in the world, it would have been hard to believe him Wednesday when he said the abuse in Abu Ghraib prison "doesn't represent the America I know."

The Long Trail to Apology
Native America: All manner of unusual things can happen in Washington in an election year, but few seem so refreshing as a proposed official apology from the federal government to American Indians - the first ever - for the "violence, maltreatment and neglect" inflicted upon the tribes for centuries.

Judged Forever- The Orange County Register
California's largest job-placement program for parolees will be shut down May 31 after an Orange County Register investigation found that ex-convicts were sent to questionable jobs and that the state was charged for placements that did not occur.

QLD INDEFINITE DETENTION 'IN A NUTSHELL'

Queensland Labor Attorney-General Rod Welford 'Indefinite Detention'

In Queensland prison sentences have become step-by-step more lengthy over the last decade according to prisoner Mr David Minty who has been in jail for 20 years.

The introduction of new legislative policy to keep prisoners indefinitely can mean we are never to be released. These changes will have an effect on my sentence and I can now expect to die behind bars.

Because I have been unable to establish strong ties in the 'outside' community my category of prisoner will come under the proposed policy that will not be granted parole.

The Queensland Attorney-General Rod Welford has taken the unusual steps by taking sex offenders to court right at the time of their release and making sure the keys were thrown away.

There were others before, that during sentencing, the Attorney-General took 'leave' of the Sentencing Court and asked for an 'indefinite Sentence' to be handed down, and which a number of felons received. Both these categories of prisoners are 'locked in' to a regime of 'never to be released'.

Several more categories of prisoners are now being targeted.

Queensland defies U.N. conventions by retaining mandatory sentences of ' life means life' for the offence of murder.

Legislations increase the number of offences able to carry a 'life sentence'. One such legislation in the early nineteen-nineties was for a hardcore-drug offence and gave new meaning to mandatory but only for that category of sentencing.

Those convicted under that 'Act' were given 'mandatory life-sentences' and it did mean; never to be released from prison. That was repealed several years later.

It could be argued that news only carries reports of lenient sentencing or early release of felons and never shows that these circumstances are extremely exceptional and not usually the rule. The whimsical (or manipulative) policies of prison administration distort the 'long-term sentenced' prisoners' sentences.

My sentence plan history has been rewritten with little regard that it was an abuse of process and therefore unlawful to do so.

He says there are devices such as an 'Offender Risk Needs Inventory' a questionnaire that is in many cases implemented in a capricious and deceptive fashion; and with much secrecy; and my evidence is that my score dramatically rose in a space of 2 years without any good reason.

A judge obligated to hand down a mandatory sentence to a person convicted of murder has no discretion; legislation dictates there is no alternative other than handing down a 'life sentence'. This was once referred to as an 'Indefinite sentence' but became 'Indeterminate sentence' when the so-call 'Serious Dangerous Offenders Bill' was being enacted becoming a separate category where felons would be convicted under the 'Act' (Penalties and Sentences Act section 172) and be sentenced to a statute 'Indefinite Sentence'.

Where 'Indefinite' was reserved for the worst of the worst offences, the mandatory 'life-sentences' a judge delivered were hardly ever intended that the prisoner would not be granted parole after a considerable time. That is if the prisoner showed redeeming merits and was rehabilitated or habilitated (taught how to live).

'Queensland Community Corrections Board' (Parole Board) the authority who would give parole to 'long-term - sentenced' prisoners is in March 2005 closing down its 'Release to Work Centres' which used to trial prisoners as a staging-post before being paroled.

Elsewhere in the system 'Leave of Absences' have become almost nonexistent for prisoners to re-establish community ties. Once a prisoner could achieve a day leave program. 'leave' to be with family or a suitable sponsor for a day every month, near the completion of the custodial segment of a sentence. Now, there are very few prisoners on prison farms receiving ' leave' now, one only at the prison farm 'Numinbah'.

It is proposed that in June 2005 'Indeterminate sentenced' prisoners', generally the most changed and benevolent prisoners, will not be given parole if they don't have strong community ties such as family to go back to. Therefore disadvantaged prisoners who have lost all contact out in the community after 15 to 20 years have lost many opportunities and will 'fall through the cracks' buried, remain in jail, institutionalised, indefinitely.

It is cruel and unusual punishment (not having a sentence defined) and I am applying to the Supreme Court for relief (from being denied 'natural justice'), A previous action I took was heard on 31 October 2002, under the 'Penalties and Sentences Act 1992' Section 171(1)(a) ' Application to Review Sentence'. I attempted to point out to the court that 'Indefinite ' and 'Indeterminate' meant the same and instead of coming under an unaccountable parole board and that I should have the benefits of applying to the court as an 'Indefinite - sentenced' prisoner and have my merits weighed by a court.

Prisoners would not need to be seeking help or to have their 'rights' confirmed from a court if Queensland followed other States and set-up 'Merits Review Tribunal'.

I conclude with a bit of witticism and a degree of cynicism that the Queensland public can be assured that the public servants are ensuring that taxes are being increasingly spent on making a vast and monumental infrastructure and permanently banishing outcasts from society.

They're not afraid of the law as they believe they are the law, and often manipulate legislation, and will do what is necessary by stealth if need be.

Politicians have opted for the soft-option and have abandoned recycling - rehabilitation. It's all a bit like the 'Transportation' policy when Britain exiled the forefathers to this great free nation of ours, Australia.

By David Minty 16 February 05

In Other Developments:

KERRY O'BRIEN: Law and order has become the hobby horse of state politicians around the country in response to a public perception - rightly or wrongly - that violent crime is on the increase?

DR DON WEATHERBURN: Most of the error in judging crime trends comes from a general tendency to think crime is rising when it is actually stable or falling.

JUSTICE ACTION: Actually violent crime is not on the increase and statistics say its been stable over the last decades.

Now the Queensland Government has a law that would allow the indefinite detention of dangerous prisoners beyond their full sentence, if they're deemed to pose a threat to society on release.

JUSTICE ACTION: But more importantly if the QLD Department of Corrective Services fail to give the prisoners programs and instead punish the prisoners throughout the term of their sentence then the department failed the community.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: If you do the crime, you serve the time. But, in Queensland, that time may be stretched out indefinitely to prevent possible crimes in the future.

A 54-year-old multiple rapist, Robert John Fardon, is the first prisoner to face the Queensland Government's draconian pre-emptive imprisonment laws.

JUSTICE ACTION: What did the taxpayers pay for at $60,000 dollars a year for 14 years that's $840,000 dollars?

PETER MCCUTCHEON: The government wants him to remain behind bars, despite having completed a 14-year jail term.

JUSTICE ACTION: If you take your car to the panel beater to fix a damaged panel and they return the car to you written off do you pay for the repairs?

ROD WELFORD, QUEENSLAND ATTORNEY-GENERAL: At the end of the day, the balance we've struck is that it's safer to detain these people pending a review of their capacity to make it outside prison rather than everyone else in the community locking themselves up to protect themselves from them.

JUSTICE ACTION: But in the grand scheme of things the balance you struck was to make taxpayers pay you for your mistakes. In this case you had this person in your care for 14 years and ended up with a write off, after you've been paid to rehabilitate prisoners.

Then after you have failed to do your job you want taxpayers to continue to pay for your failures why? Why hasn't the standard of a human being been lowered in over 200 years? Have people suddenly developed bad genes and cannot learn?

PETER MCCUTCHEON: This radical new approach to crime prevention is under challenge, sparking a new debate about security and liberty.

CATHY PEREIRA, PRISONERS' LEGAL SERVICE: We think that this is a law that fundamentally undermines the criminal justice system in Australia and it's quite novel in the sense that, for the first time, it's asking the courts to make a guess about whether a person is going to commit a criminal offence in the future.

HETTY JOHNSTON, BRAVEHEARTS: What's happening here is we're just pussy footing around. If what we're trying to do is to protect the community, protect innocent children, then let's do it. And, if that means turning the law over on its head, then let's do that too.

JUSTICE ACTION: Yes but you don't protect the community by lowering the standards of a human being because the QLD Department of Corrective Services failed to implement proper programs in prison.

Why wasn't there an 'independent' inquiry to find out the facts of Fardon's incarceration? Was this man delivered the programs or was he blocked because of the Departments discrimination and treatment? So before legislation is radically changed and before we lower the standards of a human being we should have first found out the facts of his incarceration and what this man was offered in prison.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: Earlier this year, the Beattie Government was severely embarrassed when it had to make an 11th-hour bid to ensure a notorious paedophile - Dennis Raymond Ferguson - was released from jail on the condition he report to police.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: At the height of the controversy, the Beattie Government announced new laws to detain the state's most dangerous prisoners'. Ten months later, with a state election in the offing, the State Supreme Court is being asked to apply these laws for the first time.

In some ways, Fardon is an ideal test case.The Supreme Court this week was told that on at least four occasions Fardon said he would kill or commit a crime to return to jail rather than face the daunting prospect of reintegrating into society?

But there's an added complication - the court has also been told Fardon was apparently a model prisoner, and today in court he apologised to his victims, pledging not to re-offend. Prison rights advocates say more resources should be put into helping prisoners settle into life outside, not locking them away.

CATHY PEREIRA: By warehousing one person or two people or perhaps a small group of people, that does not do anything overall for the community, to protect the community. If we're looking at community protection, then put the resources into the community.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: So you see it as a token gesture for political purposes?

CATHY PEREIRA: Absolutely. It's a token gesture.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: The Prisoners' Legal Service says these laws are ultimately about trying to protect the government from embarrassment should a dangerous prisoner re-offend. Do you concede these laws are politically convenient?

ROD WELFORD: Well, it's not just the government that's embarrassed if serious violent sex offenders are released from prison and re-offend. We've had prisoners who've been released from prison and re-offended within weeks.

JUSTICE ACTION: Ultimately these laws are also about protecting the government from admitting their failure when they haven't provided any programs to the prisoners at $60,000 dollars of taxpayers money a year and in Fardon's case that ends up being $840,000 dollars? In addition to that the cost of keeping him in jail and many others indefinitely will be incredible,

PETER MCCUTCHEON: The Dangerous Prisoners Act requires the court to determine whether there's a high degree of probability of a prisoner re-offending. Criminologist and psychologist Dr Stephen Smallbone says, from a scientific perspective, that could be unworkable.

DR STEPHEN SMALLBONE, CRIMINOLOGIST, GRIFFITH UNIVERSITY: If we put everybody who is in custody at the moment in Queensland for a sexual offence against the child together, we could be fairly sure that a certain percentage of those will commit new sex offences.

The problem is that, if we just then look at that particular subgroup of high-risk offenders, we're going to get it wrong about 25 per cent to 30 per cent of the time.

ROD WELFORD: I know that there's a nice academic argument going on about the potential for prediction about whether someone will re-offend. But the people we're talking about already have a track record and commonsense and close interaction with these people will give people with skills the capacity to make a reasonable assessment, in my view.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: Child rights advocates like Hetty Johnston from Bravehearts also have little time for the problems of predicting criminal behaviour.

HETTY JOHNSTON: We're saying there IS going to be a balance here and it's a risk - what if they don't re-offend, what if they do? In the balance is children and children's entire lives and families' entire lives and we say you have to balance that up in the best interests of the child, not in the best interests of the offender.

JUSTICE ACTION: But who's ultimately responsible for not delivering appropriate programs in prison? Who is placing children at further risk by not ensuring that prisoners get programs instead of punishment?

CATHY PEREIRA: We have to keep in mind that the only thing between ourselves and arbitrary detention is the law. If we undermine that, then it undermines the protection that is available to every citizen.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: Whatever the Supreme Court decides, the debate will continue. Fardon's legal team has lodged special leave to appeal to the High Court, arguing the Queensland legislation breaches the separation of powers under Australia's Constitution.

ROD WELFORD: There's no doubt that any law that provides for the continuing detention of a person beyond the period of their defined sentence for a particular offence will be controversial and subject to legal debate. I'm happy for that legal debate to occur, and I'm happy for the matter to be ventilated in the High Court. The High Court ultimately will determine the outcome.

Related:

Indefinite detention means the government owns its citizens
A convicted rapist detained indefinitely in a north Queensland jail has lost a High Court appeal against his detention. Robert John Fardon was due for release more than a year ago but remains in custody under controversial Queensland legislation.

Tony still seeking release after half a lifetime inside
After serving imprisonment continually since February of 1956, because of his age 74, he suffers from high blood pressure, angina, has survived a mild stroke and two major strokes in the past few years, leading to mobility problems on gradients and he continues to have irregular heart problems.

'Lifers' swap cells for nursing beds
A MURDERER and a child molester each judged too dangerous to ever be free of the prison system have been paroled to ordinary nursing homes where other residents have not been told about their pasts. Child sex offender Phillip Adamson and murderer Percy David Bond, who were both in poor health, were moved in recent weeks. Both have spent more than 30 years in jail and both were sentenced under conditions that mean they will never technically be released.

Carr policy jails oldest woman

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