Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
26 OPINION TUESDAY JANUARY 6 2015 COURIERMAIL.COM.AU
BCME01Z02MA - V1
Responsibility for election comment is taken by Christopher Dore, corner of Mayne & Campbell St, Bowen Hills, Qld 4006. Printed and published by NEWSQUEENSLAND. (ACN 009 778). A full list of our editors and journalists, with contact details, is available at couriermail.com.au/news/opinion/ourstaff
It’s illogical to ponderchanges to bikie lawsTHERE is a timeworn adage that dictates if something is not broken, it is probably best not to attempt to fix it. This maxim applies neatly to Queensland’s tough anti-bikie laws, the centrepiece of which is the Violent Lawless Association Disestablishment Bill. As Gold Coast police Superintendent Jim Keogh put it in this newspaper yesterday: “Bottom line is, why change something that’s working?”
Supt Keogh, who is at the front lineof police efforts to eradicate criminal motorcycle gang activity in this state, should know what he is talking about when he argues that the controversial legislation “has obviously been the right legislation and it’s withstood the test of time and it’s proven to have cleaned up the streets”.
What he contends is little more thanbasic logic, and that is nature – or indeed any free market, be it legal or otherwise – abhors a vacuum, and to repeal or water down dramatically Queensland’s existing suite of anti-bikie legislation risks creating a yawning gap which would quickly be filled.
Yet this is exactly what Queensland’sLabor Opposition has promised, vowing to repeal the bikie laws should it win this year’s election. In March last year, Opposition Leader Annastacia Palaszczuk said the laws were “completely unworkable and have gone too far, affecting innocent Queenslanders whose only crime is to ride a motorcycle”.
Ms Palaszczuk qualified her positionby stressing “criminal organisations pose a threat to the safety and security of Queenslanders and Labor has consistently stated its support for laws that target criminal motorcycle gangs – but in a workable, rational fashion”.
Labor would be developing its own“workable” alternative laws over the coming months, she said at the time. That was 10 months ago, and Queenslanders are yet to see a detailed and credible alternative package of legislation from Labor.
Thus it should come as no surprisethat United Motorcycle Queensland spokesman and Rebels bikie leader Mick Kosenko extended the bikie
fraternity’s support for the ALP at the next election. It is an endorsement that Ms Palaszczuk could have avoided easily if Labor devoted as mucheffort to developing and articulating their own policy solutions as the party has given to maintaining as small a target as possible in the lead-up to this year’s poll.
No one would pretend Labor or MsPalaszczuk were supporters of the extortion, drug-running and generally misanthropic behaviour that characterises criminal gang culture in this state. Indeed the Bligh Labor government moved to crack down on gang culture with its own brand of anti-association legislation.
That said, so far Ms Palaszczuk’s grandstanding on the issue in the absence of any solid policy prescription of her own smacks of opposition simply for opposition’s sake, and is a poor effort from someone who would seriously put herself forward as a potential premier.
Given that the VLAD laws were introduced in late 2013, Labor has had ample time to formulate its own alternative, but has so far preferred to raise its head above the policy parapet on this issue only when the opportunity for a shot at Premier Newman or Attorney-General Bleijie presents itself.
Politically this is just plain dumb. After initial concerns, fanned by hysterical reporting by some sections of the media, about the civil liberties ramifications of the anti-bikie laws and their potential for wider application, there is now widespread recognition the hard line policy has worked.
Quite simply Labor, while seeking tohighlight civil libertarian issues, must also propose more than simply dismantling something that has proven effective, survived a High Court challenge, and is being viewed as a template by other states facing similar criminal gang issues.
As Supt Keogh said so succinctly: “While it would be all good from a police perspective to lay claim to the success in relation to the criminal motorcycle gang problem, the reality is you can’t do it without the legislation.”
MAYBE it’s the heat, perhaps it’s the season of having one too many refreshments, or just plain lack of judgment after what was a long and tiring 2014.
Either that or it is the season of rankstupidity when too many people seem to suffer a spontaneous bypass of basic common sense.
In central Queensland at the weekend a middle-aged man who should know better ended up being flown to hospital after pouring petrol on a barbecue and suffering severe
burns to his upper body as a result. Then there is the case of five unrestrained children loaded into the back of an SUV, its tailgate wide open, on the Gold Coast on New Year’s Day.
Yes, it is still the summer holiday season and yes, we can relax, but that doesn’t mean turning off the brain to the point of potentially deadly misjudgment.
Stay alert, stay safe and continue tokeep a watchful eye on those around you who may have switched off the personal responsibility button.
EDITORIAL
In the grip of summer madness
morphine would finally get the upper hand.
To be brutally honest, youwould not let an animal endure that sort of demise, realising instead there comes a point where death is a kindness, and life has become the cruelty.
Some years earlier he and Iused to stand together – week after week, month after month – equally impotent as we watched my mother slowly fade to a dessicated husk, her rheumy eyes devoid of light as Alzheimer’s gradually ate away at her very being.
In the end she spent yearsin her final bed, nurses turning her regularly to prevent bed sores, changing her nappies, sponging her clean and spooning paste into her mouth.
The body in that nursing home was not my mother, nor my father’s wife – the physiotherapist, the writer, the rock of the family and my father’s life partner. She died, at least for me, long before she drew her last breath.
Both my parents, had theythe choice, would have elected to die peacefully and with dignity, and preferably at home.
Despite explicit advancedcare directives with provisions such as no life support or resuscitation, such a humane option is not legally open to
had he had that right to choose.
The nurses – and thank youto all the staff at Greenslopes Hospital, you are truly wonderful – tried to assure us he was feeling nothing as the remains of his ravaged body continued to fight on; as he slowly drowned in his own fluids. Maybe. I hope so.
My father had no phobias,was fazed by little in life, attacking every challenge with the calm and methodical reason a training in science
and a lifetime in the bush had instilled in him.
His one great fear, however,was choking – a terror, borne of what I will never know, that he would suffocate.
And in essence, that is exactly what came to pass, as we stood by impotently, just hoping that the ever-increasing dosages of
WILLING, with all your heart, someone to die, drains the soul.
As each increasingly intermittent gurgle of breath is drawn, there follows what seems an impossibly long silence.
Then another slight spasmas the body on the bed gasps and the lungs bubble, foam visible in the back of the throat.
And so it goes on, hour after hour.
I’m not a particularly religious man but I’ll admit to praying to any God that may have been listening to please, just let it end; please make my father’s next, desperate, wheeze be his last.
No death is pretty but someare downright ugly and painful. They strip away decades of dignity, intellect and self-reliance, leaving in their place only a primal struggle to endure in the face of a certain and imminent end.
My father’s death came after a long battle with pancreatic cancer, his final days spent in a hospital room, almost comatose as a cocktail of morphine and tranquillisers coursed through his veins.
Like the loss of any parentor close family member, his death is deeply saddening, but it is not tragic.
He lived a long and full lifethat spanned more than eight decades and four continents, and had his family (few that we are) by his side until the end.
Rather the tragedy lies inthe manner of his passing, one that he would not have chosen
It is tragic that there is no legal option for terminally ill people to pass away peacefully, writes Paul Syvret
NO DIGNITY
YOU WOULD NOT LET AN ANIMAL ENDURE
THAT SORT OF DEMISE, REALISING
INSTEAD THERE COMES A POINT
WHERE DEATH IS A KINDNESS
Smith, Tori never had that choice. His partner was permitted to stand before friends and family to honour the love of his life in death, but he could not do that (legally) while they both lived.
It is a disgrace.There are many things we
cannot change.We could not stop gunman
Man Haron Monis from entering the Lindt Cafe that day with his gun and his anger.
We could not stop Cairnsmother Raina Mersane Ina Thaiday from allegedly picking up a knife and stabbing eight young children to death in the supposed safety of their home.
We could not put AirAsia
(pictured) had been together for 14 years and are reported to have hoped to be legally married one day. But the laws in our progressive, Western democracy forbid that.
While the funeral of fellowMartin Place victim Katrina Dawson was decorated with glorious photos from her wedding to husband Paul
MARRIAGE, according to law in Australia, is the union of a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life.
In 2013, 118,962 couples gothitched (presumably by choice) and 47,638 got divorced.
So much for the “enteredinto for life” bit.
According to the 2011 census, there are also 33,700 same-sex couples in Australia – making up about 1 per cent of all adult relationships.
One of them was Lindt Chocolate Cafe siege victim Tori Johnson and his long-time partner, Thomas Zinn.
Johnson and Zinn
Don’t let hate and bigotry stand in the way of marriage equality
OPINION
COURIERMAIL.COM.AU TUESDAY JANUARY 6 2015 OPINION 27
V1 - BCME01Z02MA
honour her equally strong wish to die with dignity, and hang the consequences if our lawmakers have still not had the courage and compassion to legislate for choice.
Death will always be unpleasant, but we do have the capacity to make it less unbearable.
nears, I hope with all my heart that my wife and children would still be able to somehow honour, perhaps assist, but at least respect my wish to die at a time of my choosing rather than in a haze of drugs or dementia.
If it is my wife that fate deems be taken first, I would like to think I would have the courage and the love to
physical incapacity – a caring society would allow the option to end our lives with a degree of grace and humanity.
Certainly after watching first hand the slow lingering deaths of both my parents, the prospect of a similar end fills me with cold dread.
If the option of a peacefuland dignified exit remains legally closed when my time
any of us. Instead for countless thousands of Australians each year, death is a grotesque and tormented ordeal that the RSPCA would likely deem to border on cruelty if inflicted on a family pet.
It doesn’t need to be this way. For the terminally ill – or for any of us who wish to stipulate a hypothetical future point of advanced mental or
IN PAINFUL DEATH
with it significant legal, social and moral value – though this has not always been the case.
In fact, the concept of marriage has changed dramatically over the centuries, with the modern idea of two “equals” joining in holy matrimony dating back only about 50 years.
Marriage is an ancient institution that originally had little to do with love and more to do with strategic alliances and power. (It still does in some cases).
While traditionally a contract between a man and a woman, polygamy was also popular in many cultures so the idea of it being between two people “to the
exclusion of all others” is also a ninth century addition.
So why then do we cling tothe archaic laws that prevent same-sex couples from the joy and lawful protection of marriage in Australia?
Britain, New Zealand, Canada, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Finland, Luxembourg, Argentina and even 35 states in the US have
legal same-sex marriage.
Surely as weclose the door on2014 – a year that
produced toomuch tragedyand heartache– it is time tocreate alastingmemorial tothose whohave lost loved
ones.In Cairns,
thoughts areturning to asuitable
memorial to replace the house where the eight young children were massacred.
In Sydney, the family of Lindt Cafe victim Katrina Dawson has set up a foundation to honour her memory by supporting education opportunities for women.
A fund also has been established in the name Tori Johnson, with money being donated to mental health organisation beyondblue.
These are all worthwhileways to commemorate the lives lost. But, Prime Minister Tony Abbott, you have the opportunity to create a lasting memorial to love.
Make Tori’s Law – the legalisation of marriage between same-sex couples in Australia – a priority for your government in 2015.
Don’t let hate and bigotrywin.
Sue McVay is the state managing editor of News Queensland
Flight QZ8501 back up in the sky. And we cannot stop the evil followers of ISIS from raping and murdering thousands of women and children.
We can, however, challenge laws we believe are unjust and harass our politicians to change them.
Which is not to say the sanctity of marriage shouldn’t be nurtured and protected.
Anyone who has marriedafter a long de facto relationship will certainly attest to the “social acceptance” that comes with the title of Mr and/or Mrs.
Regardless of the length ofcourtship, marriage offers respectability to partnerships that no number of “years together” can match. It is a statement about commitment that has real value in our community.
It is not a contract about breeding (which unmarried people often do, too).
It is a contract that carries
From now on it’s all systems goIT’S possibly the biggest eureka moment since Archimedes took up having showers.
But unlike the ancientGreek scholar, I managed to solve one of our greatest problems without – thankfully – having to get my kit off. Win win.
There are plenty of theories about how to live longer. Eat X food instead of Y or consider Y drink rather than Y not. You could take a nap at lunch or go for a run at breakfast.
As a strategy, they probably all work, more or less. A diet with broccoli is better than just buns and burgers and daytime naps might mean you could live longer, although as you would be asleep for that extra time you might not notice the difference.
But then there is my idea for living an extended lifespan, which came upon me, rather surprisingly, at Bowen Hills train station.
The process of catchingpublic transport, for those of you who don’t, is simple. Tap your go card to begin your journey and tap again when you get to the other end.
And with that tap, there’s the rub. Walking across the train platform on a hot, muggy morning, I did what most people do – stared at my phone and lost myself in the process.
Then when I got to theend of the station I was struck with a thought: did I tap to end my journey?
Tap twice and you canfind you’re slugged with a $10 fee because the system assumes you’re starting a new route. Don’t tap and you’re hit with the same penalty.
The problem was I hadtuned out. Like when you drive home from work and find yourself suddenly at home without any real recollection of the journey. Or when you tune back into a conversation and find your wife is expecting more than a vague look as a form of meaningful communication.
That’s when the theorystruck. None of us can live forever but what if we could tune in for all of the time that we’re here?
I started counting the minutes a day I lose in that vague cloud of being not quite there. Catching publictransport. Watching TV. Talking, apparently, to people at work.
Add it up and I’m like areworking of the classic union campaign by someone who failed maths. Eight hours’ work. Eight hours’ rest. Eight hours play. Eight hours off with the fairies.
At times, I’m here andI’m also there. I hit the button to lock the car three times because I can’t remember the other two.
The beauty of the human brain is that somehow, it manages to do its own thing with no apparent thought.
Take go card tapping. Clearly, my brain had said “I can see you’re busy, I’ve got this” and sent a message to move my hand without bothering to carbon copy in the memory bank so I would be able to recall the action later.
Sometimes it occurs tome I would be a lousy witness. “Where were you on the night of…?” the lawyer would be asking, while I would be thinking “what did I have for breakfast today ”?
So, what if we all just focused a little more? What if we made a really conscious effort to focus on those tiny, inane moments that we naturally forget.
No, you can’t live forever. But if you embrace all of the really boring moments in life, it will certainly seem like it.
WORLDWIDE CONVERSATIONDownload a QR reader to your smartphone, then scan the codes to read the stories on the internet
JAMES DENSELOWEurope must look seriously into accepting larger asylum quotas and focus on giving the most vulnerable a legitimate means of getting to their shores.
JOAN BAKEWELL We would like life to be slower, less frenetic and less driven by the need to press forward with whatever life holds.
