Not as well as the parole board, according to National party policy.
I thought I had misheard NatRad's announcement of National's Law and Order policy. Even when Darth Vader in Pearls herself appeared on Checkpoint explaining the policy I couldn't quite wrap my brain around it. But it seems that National wants the Parole Board to have the ability to appeal to the High Court near the end of someone's prison sentence and incarcerate them indefinitely. No Right Turn goes into the details.
Preventative Detention is available to judges during sentencing, a novelty borne out of the last decade of Labour and National outbidding each other to show how tough on crime they are. But this plainly is not harsh enough, and National now wants the ability for the Parole Board to add time onto full sentences served.
The whole point of the rule of law is to prevent arbitrary sentencing, yet this is plainly want National are seeking. Indeed, National's MO for law and order policy seems to be one knee jerk reaction after another.
Clayton Weatherston unsuccessfully used provocation as a defence, and National changed the law. The Waihopai Three used the "claim of right" defence successfully. Not only did National change the law, they are suing the penniless priests for damages. Tame Iti's Flightless Circus managed to get some video evidence ruled inadmissible and National changed the law (with the help of Labour). And now, with the imminent release of an unrepentant "Beast of Blenheim," National wants to change the law again.
National clearly has no respect for Lady Justice.
In unrelated news, Rodney Hide is threatening to disband the democratically elected Hamilton City Council for the losses incurred by the failed V8 money-spinner. Perhaps this is an obtuse dig at his Epsom replacement John Banks, who threw $2.5 million of Auckland City ratepayers' money down the toilet over a wasted run of My Fair Lady.
