On Mar 16, 2:47*pm, HK wrote:
...in that it still has and allows the death penalty.

Death penalty dead and buried as Parliament bans it for good

THE death penalty has been buried forever after Federal Parliament
passed laws ensuring it can't be reinstated in any jurisdiction.

While no Australian state or territory uses the death penalty, the laws
were needed to ensure the situation could never be reintroduced.

Both sides of politics supported the move which is largely seen as symbolic.

ACT Liberal senator Gary Humphries said the abolition of the death
penalty was a "hallmark of a civilised society".

Not since the execution in 1967 of Ronald Ryan - found guilty of
shooting and killing prison officer George Hodson while escaping from
Pentridge Prison - had the death penalty been applied in Australian law,
Senator Humphries said.

It was worth noting, however, that the death penalty had been used
throughout Australia's history, he said.

"The first use of the death penalty occurred only a few days after the
First Fleet arrived in Sydney in 1788."

"It is to me a matter of great satisfaction that today the federal
parliament on behalf of all Australian jurisdictions is in the position
to close the door finally and I think irrevocably on this particular,
rather dreary aspect of the Australian criminal justice system."

Fellow Liberal George Brandis said it was an appropriate measure for the
commonwealth to legislate.

"And of course it is hardly necessary to add that it is many years since
any of the states or territories had the death penalty," Senator Brandis
told the Senate.

"Given that torture and the death penalty are already prohibited the
effect of the bill is therefore in this respect largely symbolic."

The new laws also replace the existing offence of torture in a 1988 act
with a new offence in the Commonwealth Criminal Code.

The Crimes Legislation Amendment (Torture Prohibition and Death Penalty
Abolition) Bill 2009 passed the Senate without amendments.

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Makes ya proud to be an Ameriken, eh?

--

If the X-MimeOLE "header" doesn't say:

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then it isn't me, it's an ID spoofer.

good morning Krause. always good to hear the views of an upstanding
citizen like you. btw, how's the little woman? you know, the doctor-
doctor.