Rau backflip a damning indictment on Atkinson
The State Liberals today said that Attorney-General John Rau’s embrace of the Liberals’ proposal for a law reform body shows that Labor failed on law reform over the past eight years.
Former Attorney-General Michael Atkinson made the following comments during the 2010 election campaign:
“If South Australia were burdened with a Law Reform Commission the Rann Government would not have been able to change more than a hundred criminal laws in the past eight years to bring the criminal justice system back towards synchronisation with society’s values and expectations.”
(Mix FM, 17/03/2010)
“Either Mr Atkinson thinks Mr Rau is out of touch with community values, or Mr Rau has demonstrated just how far behind South Australia is on law reform under Labor,” Shadow Attorney-General Stephen Wade said today.
Mr Rau acknowledged in Parliament today that “South Australia really has not had a law reform commission here since the 1980s and up until now has been the only jurisdiction not to have one in any way, shape or form.”
The former Attorney-General Atkinson’s comments also raise doubts as to whether the current Attorney-General is taking his hand off the wheel when he said a law reform body would “palm off these decisions about sentencing policy to a committee of defence lawyers and we know what will follow, that is that sentencing will get lighter, not heavier” (5AA, 15/02/2010).
“Labor is undergoing an identity crisis on Law and Order policy, already denouncing last year’s election statements,” Mr Wade said.
“Labor is simultaneously trying to defend its past record on law and order whilst distancing itself from the arguments given to justify its policies at the time.
“Labor’s own Ministers argued passionately against these policies, but less than a year later they have done a complete backflip and adopted the Liberal Policy they condemned.
“Labor is clearly divided over its direction in law reform. It remains to be seen who’s really calling the shots.”