Millionaire hid assets from wife

IT'S a real-life War of the Roses: A bitter husband hid millions of dollars and a luxury car from his wife in a bid to stop her getting a slice of the family wealth.


The man, who cannot be named, did not declare to the court or his wife that he had bought a $265,000 car - or the true size of a huge inheritance from his aunt.

Family Court judge Peter Young, who ruled on the split of a $15.5 million fortune, stated in his decision that the man "intentionally and deliberately withheld relevant financial information as to his net assets and his entitlements under the estate of his late aunt".

Justice Young also found the man did not admit he had received $1 million as part of the sale of a successful business for $15.9 million in August 2009.

The couple, aged 45 and 44, were married in 1995 and have two children. Justice Young gave the husband 66.5 per cent of the fortune and the wife 33.5 per cent, arguing the husband's "failure to disclose" assets justified making an "adjustment in favour of the wife".

The wife, who conceded she is a recovering alcoholic, gets to keep her $93,000 jewellery collection, properties and a luxury car. She had asked the court to give her 45 per cent of the assets.

The husband, who earned $6.2 million in 2010, gets to keep the substantial family home in Melbourne, which has several bedrooms and seven toilets.

During their 18-year marriage the couple had a lavish lifestyle and regular overseas holidays to Hawaii, Hong Kong and the US. The husband conceded he has four cars and the wife said she needed $4400 a week to maintain her "very high standard of living".

"I conclude the husband was intent on ensuring the wife did not know about his purchase of, or use and enjoyment of, this luxury motor vehicle," Justice Young said.

"The husband is a clever, financially astute and very aware individual who clearly knew what valuable assets he owned and was otherwise careful and over precise in the preparation of his various financial documents.

"I do not believe the husband's evidence that the omission of the prestige vehicle was an oversight."

Justice Young said the failure to "make proper, frank and meaningful disclosure" was to "protect" his personal fortune and "ensure that the wife knew little of his substantial and somewhat extravagant lifestyle".

news.com.au 18 Apr 2013

Women are all too aware of the financial benefit gained from falseified reasons for departing a marriage, especially when there are children involved.

The legal system is organised in such a manner to rip off the individuals who have a 'bitter divorce' or an acrimonious relationship, keeping the funds within the corporate 'brethren' of the legal system.

The lawyers prey on the vulnerability of emotional clients, depleting their combined asset base, using the emotions for pure financial gain.

By default the legal system is against the male in just about every respect.

Information has been obtained from various legal sources that the male is firstly at fault with a 70% weight against him.

Any woman can obtain a restraining / intervention order or AVO, WITHOUT any proof whatsoever, and it is up to the male to prove his innocence.

Women regularly vexatiously claim abuse by their spouses, in many a situation where it has never occured.

The legal system cares not for who is right, but rather the financial gain for the entire legal eco system.

The myth promoted by the corporate media "Innocent until proven guilty" is a deliberate lie.

NBN's future still up for debate

AUSTRALIA will receive a national high-speed broadband network regardless of this year's federal election result, but the form it takes and the speed it delivers is up for grabs.

On one side, the Coalition will offer a fibre-optic network for faster internet access, and promises a quicker installation but slower download speeds.

  

Telecommunications experts are divided over the proposals, with some arguing faster speeds will be needed by the time a Coalition network is complete, while others say its ability to be upgraded on demand or later is future-proofing enough.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says the Coalition's National Broadband Network will deliver a minimum download speed of 25 megabits per second to Australian homes by 2016, rising to 50mbps by 2019.

By comparison, Labor's NBN is connecting users at a minimum speed of twice that final target, at 100mbps.

"We are absolutely confident that 25mbps is going to be enough - more than enough - for the average household," Mr Abbott says.

The Coalition's network would be delivered to Australian households faster, and more cheaply, by failing to connect directly to homes.

Its fibre-to-the-node technology would instead connect fibre-optic cable to cabinets in the street, with houses connected to the cabinets using existing copper wiring now used to deliver telephone calls.

The speed of a home's connection could be determined by its distance from the cabinet, though the Coalition notes that speeds "exceeding 100mbps over short lengths of copper" could be possible.

In contrast, Labor's fibre-to-the-premises NBN could deliver downloads at up to one gigabit per second.

CSIRO Australian Centre for Broadband Innovation business development manager Geof Heydon predicts high-end users may require 1Gbps speed by 2021 to access services including 8K television downloads, telehealth consultations, telecommuting, and even 3D holograms and maps.

"Back in 2002, I forecast that by 2020 the average high-end user would be buying and affording 1Gbps download speeds," he says. "That is directly extrapolating what happened in the past. In 10 years from now, for example, every photo you've got will be stored in the cloud."

Telecommunications analyst Paul Budde says the Coalition's network is flawed because it cannot support these demands, at its minimum speed of 50mbps, and will be outdated at its completion.

"Looking back over the last five to 10 years, it is not too difficult to envisage and to predict that eventually those faster speeds are needed," Mr Budde says. "If you don't want to spend the money for a full upgrade now, what is their plan for the future?"

But Ovum research director David Kennedy says the Coalition's network can be upgraded to reach homes at a later date, delaying the investment until it is needed.

The Coalition says it will also allow consumers to pay NBN Co to connect fibre directly to their homes, but Mr Kennedy says the cost could stop many from using the technology.

"If it's cheap, there'll be a lot of interest," he says. "To get fibre run from a node to your home is going to be at least hundreds of dollars if you're close to a node, and if you're not close to the node as much as $2000 to $4000. At those sorts of prices, I don't expect a lot of take-up."

news.com.au 17 Apr 2013

Australia is literally in the dark ages with internet technology, of which a significant blame rests on the stranglehold of communication by Telstra.

Ill informed politicians 'dicate' what is acceptable as bandwidth to the consumer i.e. 25 Mbps, while other countries are already installing multi gigabit speeds.

Australia's policy is to install updates in retrograde, with no or little room for the future.

This policy holds especially for infrastructure projects, including technology.

Australia's government cronies are paving the way for a new 'third world' country, right under the noses of the sleepy 'sheeple'.

As long as the masses have access to mind numbing reality programs, like cooking, singing, and dietary trash programs, that's all that is needed to keep the masses entertained, keeping them away from matters of significance.

'Change the tax system': Business group's controversial call

A MAJOR employers' group has today called for an overhaul of the tax system including a controversial proposal to distribute GST revenue according to population size.

The Business Council of Australia (BCA) wants more overseas investment here and a wider use of foreign workers.

It is calling for a big sell-off of government assets with the proceeds spent on necessary public works, as directed by the strengthened powers of the government-appointed Infrastructure Australia.

BCA president Tony Shepherd today outlined a program for economic upgrade with a warning that the big political parties were not making the choices for future prosperity.

It was a "serious time" in which "we really need to focus on making Australia ready for the future", Mr Shepherd told the National Press Club in Canberra.

"In many countries creating jobs, raising living standards and securing long-term prosperity is an uphill challenge. In Australia it's a choice," he said.

"A choice that no-one seems intent on making at the moment."

The BCA will soon release a report on detailed changes it considers necessary, and Mr Shepherd outlined some of them in his lunchtime address, including a change to how GST revenue is allocated to the states.

At present it is distributed according to the needs of the states in critical performance areas. The BCA wants funds also used as a reward for state efficiency improvements.

Mr Shepherd said: "Let's find a way of moving to an equal per capita distribution of the GST so that the Federation is better geared to manage a modern economy where you need a fairer basis for sharing national revenue.

"Let's introduce a new system of productivity payments along the lines of the old competition payments, to give us a means of driving key national reforms."

Mr Shepherd wants a fresh round of privatisation of infrastructure assets which governments "don't need to own" and the money used to build necessary projects in partnership with business.

The Business Council is calling for a deeper overseas engagement which would "open doors to new markets, new ideas, and stronger cultural and security ties".

"We should have a more internationally open labour market, maintain migration at current levels and maintain the flexibility of the 457 visa arrangements," said Mr Shepherd.

"We must always remember that migration and diversity have been a great nation builder for Australia, and we should never turn our backs on it."

He said: "We should become a world leader in attracting foreign investment and lift the general foreign investment screening threshold to $1.1 billion for all countries.

"We need a more nuanced approach to investment from state-owned enterprises and sovereign wealth funds, recognising they will be a big source of investment.

"The Asia-Pacific region, and China in particular, will be central to our prosperity and we should not underestimate how big that is.

"(Chinese) President Xi Jinping told the Boao Forum last week that in the next five years China plans to import US$10 trillion worth of goods, invest US$500 billion overseas, and send 400 million tourists abroad.

"The steps we took last week in building the strategic alliance and on the convertibility of currency (with China) were significant, and I commend the government for that. But we must be ready for this opportunity."

news.com.au 17 Apr 2013

The whole purpose of the new 'globalisation' policy of the new order of the world is to bring in cheap labour under the 'refugee' banner.

Governments and businesses are in favour of immigration as this is the ticket to 'easy street' in terms of profits.

Currently fraud and 'money for mates' deals within government and it's supported businesses are rife.

The suggestion to incorporate government deals exclusively with businesses, only opens up door for more financial abuse, naturally at the tax payers expense.

The government in line with new world order policies sold off its (people owned) utilities, consequently allowing the businesses to rip off the consumer with no penalties whatsoever, only support from the governing bodies.

City of Sydney Council plants world's most expensive hedge

IN A case of local government spending gone mad, an Australian council is building what may be the world's most expensive hedge.

The City of Sydney Council is spending $9 million on a 1km hedge along a busy, polluted street.

The council, one of Australia's wealthiest, claims the hedge will turn one of Sydney ugliest thoroughfares into a Parisian-style boulevard.

Fume-choked Cleveland Street will "be transformed into a green hedge-lined boulevard" according to the council's lord mayor, Clover Moore, whose private home lies about 800m from the multi-million-dollar upgrade.

Preliminary work on the hedge has already cost ratepayers about $800,000 for the design, quantity surveying and about 100m of garden beds.

More than 900 Murraya paniculata plants will be installed along the street, which underwent partial planting late last year.

"Just five months later and those new plants have already formed a thick, attractive flowering hedge," Ms Moore claimed.

But when news.com.au visited the hedge, it was being used as an ashtray by smokers, with dozens of cigarette butts strewn among the plants, many of which were thin and twiggy.

According to landscape gardener, the Lifestyle Channel's Charlie Albone, the cost of building a hedge has "many variables", but he could create an entire garden for $250,000.

Mr Albone said the 900 Murraya plants would have cost between $60 and $100 each, which would mean a maximum cost for the plants of just $90,000 out of the $9 million total.

The City of Sydney said the $9 million budget included lighting, street furniture, paving and new garden beds.

In comparison, Leonardslee Garden - billed as the world's most expensive garden when it sold in 2010 for $7.38 million - is and an 80ha "spectacular landscaped woodland" in England with seven man-made ponds and thousands of flowering plants.

Critics say arbitrary spending decisions by maverick

mayors and out-of-touch councillors is squandering ratepayers' money.

Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore. Picture: The Daily Telegraph

Sydney Business Chamber executive director Patricia Forsythe said Australia was over-governed with a council structure based on a "19th century" model.
Australia has 559 local councils.

"There's a duplication of jobs," she said, "I mean how many chief planners and sustainability experts do you need? They all have them. We need fewer councils and more professional councillors," she said.

Three Australian states are conducting local government reviews to consider abolitions and mergers.

The NSW Independent Local Government Review Panel is currently examining councils’ financial sustainability and decision making.

The panel believes "council amalgamations can increase economies of scale, reduce overheads and provide efficiency gains".

Queensland councils are engaged in a trial to cut planning red tape. Next week, Western Australia is holding a forum on council mergers, with recommendations to halve the number of councils.

A Sydney business operator, who asked to remain anonymous because of work relations with the City of Sydney, described it as a "very wealthy council with access to funds provided by the substantial income from the commercial heart" of Australia's largest city.

NSW Local Government minister, Don Page, said councils should "always act responsibly when spending ratepayers’ money, regardless of their cash reserves" and concentrate on delivering core services.

City of Sydney Council, which regularly comes under fire for wasting ratepayers' money, has also spent on the following projects:

• Close to $1 million on an office entrance awning described by its creator, UNSW College of Fine Arts Professor Richard Goodwin, as a "parasitic stealth wing".

• About $700,000 on a public toilet featuring a vertical garden.

• $130,000 on a musical bike path which vandals ripped up within 48 hours of its installation – the idea for the "fun footpath installation with a serious message to encourage residents to share our roads and paths, on foot or bike" came to the Lord Mayor after she watched a DVD of the 1961 musical, West Side Story.

• $90,000 on a rainbow-coloured street crossing for the annual Mardi Gras which was removed after six weeks.

• $22 million on a city swimming pool which has changed designs more than five times and now resembles, as one resident put it, "a burial mound for the Titanic", with funnels and chimneys jutting from a long, weed-covered bank.

Crazy government spending happens overseas as well.

UK

Amid accusations of "madhouse spending" on "white elephants", councils in the United Kingdom have undergone $7.3 billion in cutbacks and shed around 230,000 jobs.

This month, Nottingham City Council in the UK spent $29,500 on "fat camp" lifestyle coaches to promote healthy living for overweight youngsters in deprived areas.

Ratepayers slammed Hampshire County Council after it cut public services, yet spent $368,500 on restoring a rusted World War I gunboat.

US

A 2012 report on "stupid" US Government spending included the following:

• $500 million on a program that will, among other things, seek to solve the problem of 5-year-old children that "can’t sit still" in a kindergarten classroom.

• $25 billion each year on maintaining federal buildings that are either unused or totally vacant.

• $400,000 to researchers to find out why gay men in Argentina engage in risky sexual behavior when they are drunk.

news.com.au 18 Apr 2013

The Australian masses are being duped by the authorities that the third tier of government i.e. local councils are part of government, whereas factually they are not, and are actually corporations, that being businesses and are run as such.

What may seem as an action of sheer insanity or any other illogical explanation, is actually a money for mates scam.

Fine dodger Heidi Gully wants to work off $85,000

A HARDCORE fine dodger is pleading in court to have $85,000 in traffic fines converted to community service because of financial "hardship".

The move comes as the Adelaide City Council seeks to further penalise fined motorists by charging interest on overdue parking fines.

Heidi Gully, 32, appeared in the Port Adelaide Magistrates Court yesterday seeking a remittance on 156 existing penalties - the majority for speeding, driving unregistered and uninsured - while also facing three new unpaid traffic fines.

The offences date back to 2007, when Ms Gully was fined $480 for driving more than 30km/h above the speed limit on O'Sullivans Beach Rd, Lonsdale.

At a defendant's request, a court can convert fines to a period of community service if it believes the person cannot afford to pay the penalties.

Ms Gully, whose case was adjourned to later this year, is not the state's biggest fine dodger.

Figures released last year showed the worst culprit owed $171,000 while another person had racked up $131,000 from 175 unpaid penalties.

Latest figures also show there are $267 million in unpaid fines, an amount which has doubled in the past six years and prompted a crackdown by the State Government.

New measures will be introduced in Parliament by Attorney-General John Rau next month.

These include withdrawing money from defaulters' bank accounts or wages, selling their home or impounding vehicles.

However, under federal laws, Centrelink payments cannot be docked to repay outstanding fines.

Adelaide City Council will also clamp down on fine dodgers. It is owed an average $1.6 million each year, predominantly in unpaid parking fines, which it refers to the court system for enforcement.

The council said courts recovered less than $1 million in outstanding fines last financial year.

news.com.au 18 Apr 2013

There are many illegallities of the machinations set out by the Adelaide City Council.

Not all information provided by the corporate media is accurate.

The "... withdrawing money from defaulters' bank accounts or wages, selling their home or impounding vehicles.", is illegal under many laws.

Tomatoes to be zapped with radiation to destroy insects after new food standards declared

TOMATOES zapped with radiation could be heading towards your lunchbox or dinner table. 
 

Food Standards Australia New Zealand has declared the treatment -- to destroy insects and bacteria, but which has been linked to pet deaths -- is safe for fresh tomatoes and capsicums.

FSANZ spokeswoman Lorraine Belanger said irradiated food passed through a radiation field generated by high-energy electron beams, X-rays or gamma rays.

Irradiated food must be labelled and notices placed at sales areas or on menus.

Queensland's Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry wants the option of an alternative fruit fly control after restrictions were imposed on dimethoate and fenthion, two common chemical insecticides.

"Permitting the irradiation of tomatoes and capsicums will allow domestic and international trade in tomatoes and capsicums to continue without disruption," FSANZ decided.

"Decades of research worldwide has shown that irradiation of food is a safe and effective way to kill bacteria in foods, extend its shelf life and reduces insect infestation," the nation's food regulator said.

Ministers responsible for food regulation have until mid-May to decide on a formal approval.

While herbs, spices, some herbal teas, some tropical fruits and persimmons are already allowed to be irradiated, the bulk has been exported rather than eaten in Australia.

The Federal Government banned irradiation of imported cat food in 2009 after dozens of cats consuming high doses of dry food suffered neurological damage or death.

FSANZ says a dose of up to one kilogray is suitable for tomatoes and capsicums -- well below the levels in pet food.

Anti-irradiation campaigners, including Friends of the Earth Australia, have raised concerns about potential nutritional deficiencies, immune system disorders, and genetic damage.

heraldsun.com.au 17 Apr 2013

Quite simply put, giving cancer to the masses.

The government or any other health body will no doubt show proof that the levels are safe.

In Japan during the Fukushima disaster, the government changed the acceptable radiation levels to match that what was coming out of the reactor, and it's surrounding areas, in effect exposing the masses to cancer risk.

The masses, especially migrants, the low educated, bogans, dole bludgers (unemployed) etc are seen as expendable items by the authorities, especially after their tax paying days are behind them.

This is just another way to 'cull' the peasants.

Bieber hopes Anne Frank 'would be a Belieber'

Justin Bieber has faced withering criticism after he visited the Anne Frank museum in Amsterdam and wrote that he hoped the Jewish girl who died in a Nazi death camp would have been a fan.

The museum said on its Facebook page that Canadian singer Bieber, 19, had visited the Anne Frank House, where she and her family hid from the Nazis, for more than an hour "with his friends and guards."

"Truly inspiring to be able to come here. Anne was a great girl. Hopefully she would have been a Belieber," Bieber wrote in the guestbook after the visit, the museum said.

A belieber is a term used to describe one of the celebrity's fanatical fans, most of whom are teen or pre-teen girls.

Anne Frank's diary is a moving account of her two years in hiding from the Nazis with her family in a secret annexe that is today a popular museum in central Amsterdam.

She died in 1945 aged 15 at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in northern Germany.

Bieber's remarks provoked furious responses on social media sites such as Twitter.

In a comment retweeted more than 2000 times, Beautiful Creatures star Emmy Rossum said: "Anne Frank suffered WW2 and Justin Bieber hopes she would have been a fan? I have no words."

Ricky Gervais offered this wry observation, retweeted some 6500 times: "I agree with Justin Bieber. Anne Frank would've loved his stuff. It's perfect for being played really really quietly so no one can hear it."

But E! News reports that Bieber's guestbook comment was prompted by a museum guide.

"One of the guides pointed out that Anne was a big fan of pop culture of her time and that she might have been a fan of his, which led to what he wrote," an unnamed source said.

This has not been the first negative publicity for Bieber during his current European tour.

The pop star's capuchin monkey was seized by officials in Germany for lack of proper paperwork, he lashed out at paparazzi waiting outside his hotel in London, he cancelled a concert in Portugal without explanation, and school officials in Norway rescheduled exams to avoid clashes with his shows.

ninemsn.com.au 15 Apr 2013

Uneducated entertainment trash, with an opinion.

Bieber is a tool for the industry that stands behind him.

All that matters is that the money keeps flowing in from the prepubescent girls.

Trash, the likes of Bieber, is supported by the powers that be, in every single way.

Kill poor to fix budget, writes lobbyist with Liberal links

An article published by a Liberal Party-aligned think tank that advocates killing off the poorest 20 per cent of Australians as a way to get the budget back on track has been described as a ''disgraceful rant'' by Treasurer Wayne Swan.

A ''modest cull of the enormously poor'' has been suggested by right-wing business lobbyist Toby Ralph in a tongue-in-cheek opinion piece written in reaction to the federal government's attack on the ''fabulously wealthy'' through superannuation taxes.

A modest cull would strike at the root of our fiscal dilemma. 

''In contrast to the fabulously rich, the enormously poor make little useful contribution to society,'' wrote Mr Ralph, a long-time Liberal Party campaign strategist.


''They consume more than they contribute, putting tremendous strain on the national budget.

''A modest cull would strike at the root of our fiscal dilemma. If the least productive 20 per cent of citizens were decommissioned it would directly release a recurrent $25 billion, which would almost cover overspending by the Gillard government between now and September 14th, assuming Mr Swan maintains his long-term average rate of profligacy.

''This bold initiative would rid us of indolent students, hapless single mums, lower-order drug dealers, social workers, performance artists, Greenpeace supporters and the remaining processing personnel in our collapsing yet heavily subsidised manufacturing industries.''

Mr Ralph's bloody prescription for national economic recovery was written strictly as satire, he told Fairfax Media, saying ''some people want to be offended''.

The article ends with a suggestion that the government could recoup the $900 million it will gouge from the rich in super taxes by simply spending within its means for six days - but ''that's clearly just daft'', he wrote.
That has not stopped critics, including Mr Swan, questioning the wisdom of Menzies House publishing the article.

Menzies House was founded by Liberal senator Cory Bernardi, recently sent to the backbench over his comments on same-sex marriage leading to legalised bestiality.

Menzies House stemmed from Senator Bernardi's Conservative Leadership Foundation but he has since insisted he has no active role or editorial influence over it.

Chris Browne, a long-time employee of Senator Bernardi, resigned as editor-in-chief of Menzies House after an anonymous article was posted describing Joe Hockey as incompetent and a stain on the Coalition's reputation as a good economic manager.

Mr Browne was replaced by Tim Andrews, executive director of the Australian Taxpayers' Alliance and a former vice-president of the NSW Young Liberals.

Mr Andrews said of the article: ''It's a satire in the tradition of Jonathan Swift's 'A Modest Proposal' and, as such, I do not see any cause for persons to be offended.''

The 1729 essay suggested the impoverished Irish could ease their economic troubles by selling their children as food for the rich.

smh.com.au 17 Apr 2013

The policy of government is to oppress the masses.

Society is literally seen as a resource, expendable, and most importantly as canon fodder.

Inciting or threatening with death is illegal, especially if is has been made public.

Let's see how the law will handle this matter.

Triple-0 call data used to expose under-reporting of violent crimes by VicPol being hidden from public

TRIPLE-0 emergency call data used to help expose under-reporting of violent crimes by Victoria Police is now being hidden from the public.

The Herald Sun revealed last year that police were sent to 25,000 more assaults in Melbourne and Geelong by triple-0 dispatchers in 2010-11 than were recorded in Victoria Police crime figures.

When fresh data was sought by the Herald Sun, the Emergency Services Telecommunication Authority, which operates the system, said information on incidents that police were sent to, including assaults, brawls, domestic arguments and neighbourhood disputes, could no longer be released.

Police Minister Kim Wells promised new laws to end the secrecy after being contacted by the Herald Sun.
The State Ombudsman had repeatedly urged the force to make greater use of triple-0 data since finding in 2009 that police had abused recording procedures to improve crime clearance rates.

CEO Ken Shymanski said ESTA recognised the legitimacy of the public interest in the information and "would prefer to have a capacity to share generalised information about call-taking and dispatch", but had been advised this was no longer possible.

Mr Shymanski said ESTA had sought legal guidance as to its obligations late last year following an information request from a member of the public.

He said that advice cast doubt on the legality of past releases.

"In short, ESTA must not publicly release 'any information' relating to calls received or messages communicated by the authority in the course of providing emergency services."

ESTA declined to release the legal advice.

Mr Wells said the secrecy was an unintended consequence of strict privacy provisions included in the ESTA Act when it was introduced by the former Labor government in 2004. "We will amend the legislation to strike a better balance between the public's right to know how the service is performing and the need to protect the privacy of Victorians who have used the ESTA service."

In February, Victoria Police said it would launch an external review of the way it collected data on assaults after the Herald Sun revealed the Australian Bureau of Statistics' victim survey had put the number of assaults in Victoria in 2011-12 at 588,600 - 14 times the 42,076 recorded by police.

Ernst & Young has been hired to undertake the review, which is due to be completed next month.

news.com.au 17 Apr 2013

Another corrupt corporation in the spotlight that being VicPol.

Victoria Police have been caught out falsifying crime reports, under the top dog Simon Overland, who later got transferred to another assignment to Tasmania.

Corruption in the force is rife, but nothing is done about it.

What a pathetic government that covers up the crimes committed by Victoria Police.

Families of murder victims to sue State Government

MURDER victim Sarah Cafferkey's family will launch an unprecedented legal assault against the State Government over criminals who kill while out on parole.

Other victims' families have been invited to join a class action, amid claims danger signs were ignored as potential murderers roamed the streets.

The campaign includes a push to get the Government to register "high-risk offenders" on a public internet site.

In a bid to launch its case, the Cafferkey family has reached out to Erin Brockovich, made famous in the movie about her life, who organised a meeting with her firm Shine Lawyers this week.

Ms Cafferkey was stabbed to death by career criminal and convicted killer Steven James Hunter, who murdered the 22-year-old in November last year, nine days after his parole ended.

The Sunday Herald Sun understands Hunter, who pleaded guilty to murder on Thursday, was suspected of operating an illicit drug trafficking network while on parole, missed drug-testing appointments as part of his parole requirements and spoke of committing gruesome acts of violence.

Ms Cafferkey's mother, Noelle Dickson, said the corrections system failed to protect her daughter.

"Their failure to act on red flags raised with Corrections Victoria about Steven Hunter may have cost my daughter her life," she said.

Sources have claimed parole officers have been warned they face instant dismissal and possible criminal prosecution if they speak out about failures regarding breaches by parolees, some who have gone on to murder.

There has also been widely held concern within the justice system about young parole officers being assigned serious offenders who manipulate them.

Victoria Police has investigated 12 murders since 2008 that have been committed by parolees across the state. Some had not been returned to jail after breaching parole conditions.

Sandra Betts, the mother of murder victim Raechel Betts, who was slain by triple-murderer John Leslie Coombes, said there was a systemic failure to dig deep enough into a serious offender's history during evaluations before their release into the community.

Ms Betts is advocating higher standards of risk assessment and believes an ''active'' taskforce is required to investigate serious offenders released on parole.

"For parolees released after serious violence, aggressive rapes and murder, there ought to be a taskforce that checks on them, not just some parole officer behind a desk. There has to be this idea of risk assessment," she said.

In their claim, they will argue the actions of the parolees and the dangers they posed to the community were foreseeable.

"We believe evidence will demonstrate that relevant members of Corrections Victoria failed to discharge their respective common law duties of care based on the legal duty imposed upon them," Ms Dickson said.

Several law firms have baulked at taking on the case because of costs, despite believing they have a basis for a claim against likely respondents Corrections Victoria and the Adult Parole Board.

Any class action would challenge the state under the Wrongs Act.

The basis of any writ would claim the state and its organisations failed to take "reasonable care to ensure the safety of the community".

In a draft seen by the Sunday Herald Sun it states that "omissions" within the state's justice departments are to be the foundation of the state's liability.

"We also believe that perhaps relevant members of the parole board are failing to discharge their respective common law duties of care when it comes to the release of 'dangerous persons' into the community," it said.

"It's quite clear the parole board has been placed under increased pressure by human rights law and appears to be paying more attention to the rights of the criminal than the public."

The mooted action has similarities with a damages claim filed by Carl Williams' family in 2012 over his murder in Barwon Prison.

Filed on behalf of Williams' daughter Dhakota, the Williams are suing the State Government for $1 million.




heraldsun.com.au 14 Apr 2013

This is only just one very high profile case where the government 'deliberately' failed the masses.

It is appalling that one can be convicted of a jail sentence and not even spend one day in jail.

It is also about the economics of the situation.

Jail costs the government approx. $80,000 annually per inmate.

It is cheaper to fine someone, and upon re-offending fine them again. This is how the system works, i.e. for the money.

Australian courts are registered businesses and function as such.