Wednesday 16 September 2009

On ex-Premiers and idiot criminals

From an interview with Brian Burke in The Aus yesterday:

After a swipe at the Barnett government for its tough approach to mandatory sentencing, Mr Burke shared a laugh with Maumill who asked him about his time in jail for a 1994 travel rort conviction.

"Did you meet anyone in there who was being rehabilitated, apart from yourself?" Maumill said.

Mr Burke replied: "It would take too long to tell you about the people I met. But I can tell you this; I met no one in jail who was better for being there."
Questions Burke was not asked:

"After being locked up for rorting your travel allowances, would you do it again, or would you say that the threat of prison provides no disincentive for you to continue your criminal behaviour?"

Idiots like Burke love to say that prison is a waste of time, it fails to rehabilitate etc etc, and we should not lock so many people up.

However, it seems clear that his criminal career was brought to a screaming halt by a term of incarceration, and he shows no signs of wanting to pick up where he left off. In that case, I would say that prison definitely worked, and the fact that no more politicians have been charged with travel allowance rorts shows that all and sundry have learned a good lesson from his example.

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