大象传媒

Hi Nick,
A question for you (or anyone else), does life mean life down under? If not how many years imprisonment are likely?

The_Ex_Engineer: We have minimum and maximum terms and usually with criminal sentences what is reported in the media is the maximum penalty one may serve. The minimum penalty is the amount of time one must serve, after that they could be reviewed for parole, if that's not granted then they serve out the full term. Although there are instances of people being sentenced to life in prison with no minimum term/chance of parole.

In this case, Arthur Freeman was served a maximum life sentence with a minimum of 32 years, so he must spend at least 32 years in prison, after that he will be eligible to apply for parole. If it's not granted (i.e is found to not have been rehabilitated or is believed to still be a danger to the community) then he will stay in prison, although he can have his case reviewed every few years until either he is granted parole or dies.

Nick, a much wider investigation is long overdue. In addition to the misogynist culture of the military, the Defence establishment has wasted huge amounts of taxpayers' funds on hare-brained equipment purchases and the Department's 'Sir Humpheys' are adept at avoiding accountability.
I can't see how any progress can be made in the culture and financial responsibility of Defence without taking a broom to the bureaucrats as well.

After reading about this this morning, I have been haunted by the plight of Darcey and her 6 year old brother. May be this is also because I have two beloved children myself. What did that little girl do to deserve this? And I wonder what state of mind that poor little boy is in, and how he will grow up with that horrible memory. May he be able to come to terms with it; may he have peace of mind!
How do you come to terms with such appalling tragedies? Perhaps we have to become a bit callous, because otherwise we cannot move on. And we can resolve to treat children and each other with the love and respect we all deserve.

I cannot understand why the tragic death of Darcey Freeman is presented as a subject for discussion. It does not appear that there were failures in the policing, justice or social service systems that may have contributed to or even predicted this outcome. Other than expressing grief and outrage over the suffering and death of an innocent child, what else is there to say?

Following on from Treaclebeak鈥檚 comments on the ADFA affair and related matters. According to the 7:30 Report there are now EIGHT repeat EIGHT separate ongoing inquiries into this matter. Furthermore, Uhlmann reported that the Black Report from a previous separate inquiry has been gathering dust on the MFD鈥檚 desk for 7 months with no follow-up action. This should not be surprising since it was presented when Gillard and Co. were consumed with hanging on to power; something which continues to consume them.

I鈥檝e very little regard for Smith as a Minister. He seemed quite content to have Rudd treat him as a doormat while he was Foreign Minister. The last competent Minister for Defence was John Moore during the earlier years of Howard鈥檚 administration. He famously fired his Secretary of Defence for 鈥渞eigning鈥� rather than 鈥渞uling鈥�.

What鈥檚 the point of repeated inquiries when there are few follow-up corrective actions? The ADF supposedly has clear chains-of-command so inquiries into serious problems should be the exception rather than the rule. Imagine a Corps commander involved in combat operations having to ask for an outside authority to investigate a serious problem occurring at the Company level. If the command structure is functioning properly, then the problem would be dealt with expeditiously at the lowest level and internally within the Battalion, Brigade, Divisional or Corps hierarchy. If not, the Corps would soon be in full retreat or in a POW camp.

Regarding administrative matters:

-first, as general rule I support the practice of closing off threads whenever the quality and/or volume of posts are clearly in decline.

-second, why can鈥檛 the 大象传媒 keep its main web pages up-to-date? The main page for Asia-Pacific is still not showing the latest thread 鈥淭he Death of Darcey Freeman鈥� under the heading 鈥淏ryant鈥檚 Australia鈥� which means that most potential contributors would be unaware of it.

I agree with PeterD. What exactly can you say about what that scumbag Freeman did ?

In relation to the ADFA matter, I'd like to say that the only relevant inquiry should have been completed by now. After all, how long does it take to get those "cadets" in and ask them for a valid explanation for what they did. If they don't have one, which I expect they don't, they should have been thrown out by now. I find it disconcerting that we expect our soldiers to treat prisoners of war with respect but these cadets treat soldiers in the same uniform like dirt. Their behaviour is something you'd expect from someone wearing a Waffen SS uniform.

I'd also like to know why these cadets are given the privilege of anonymity. They're all over eighteen so they can't be treated as minors. If I was a NRL or AFL footballer I'd be particularly dirty. If it was one of them they're names and photos would be plastered all over the front page of every newspaper in the country.

Why are we still hearing about the ADF drama? Goodness me, so a few boys acted like boys and filmed some girl getting stooped by one of their own, broadcasting it to the select few perverts who were in on the act, it鈥檚 hardly earth shattering stuff. I don鈥檛 mean to lessen what they did, invasion of privacy and all that, but why does it have to be the focal point of the news for days and days and days and days? Couldn鈥檛 this have been dealt with by the respective powers that be? I mean, it鈥檚 hardly new, now is it? Dirty little boys doing stupid, ridiculous things, like they always have and probably always will.

Then it dawned on me. Of course. I can almost guarantee that the minister Stephen Smith was told to go hard on this, by the upper echelons of the Labour Party to take all the heat off the governments unpopular Carbon Tax.

It's the equivalent of the Tampa chugging into Labour's muddied political waters.

It makes perfect sense.

So, really, has this girl had her case taken up by govt ministers who really care, or is she being used further as a pawn in someone else's dirty game?

There are no winners here but their is only one punishment that would have served justice here and that would be this man hanging from the end of a rope.

Arthur Freeman`s worst punishment will not be life in prison but living with himself, whether behind bars or not.
I am not sure that his life sentence will be much comfort to his ex wife or remaining children.
Despite the appalling nature of this crime, unlike Crash I don`t believe this (or any crime) calls for a`string `im up` solution...