The South Australian Political Landscape

[tipper]

Surely he can drop "the honourable" from his title now. replace it with some other suitable title for a soon to be convicted sex offender
(at least hopefully soon to be convicted, will be a complete farce if the judge continues to protect him )

[Booney]

Surely he can drop "the honourable" from his title now. replace it with some other suitable title for a soon to be convicted sex offender
(at least hopefully soon to be convicted, will be a complete farce if the judge continues to protect him )

I can't see him avoiding a conviction, I suspect he will however avoid any custodial sentence.

[Jimmy_041]

Qualifications and Disqualifications

Constitutional provisions
A person is incapable of being chosen or of sitting as a Member of the House of Representatives if the person:

is a subject or citizen of a foreign power or is under an acknowledgment of allegiance, obedience or adherence to a foreign power;
is attainted (convicted) of treason;
has been convicted and is under sentence or subject to be sentenced for an offence punishable by imprisonment for one year or longer under a State or Commonwealth law;
is an undischarged bankrupt or insolvent;
holds any office of profit under the Crown or any pension payable during the pleasure of the Crown out of any Commonwealth revenues (but this does not apply to:
Commonwealth Ministers
State Ministers
officers or members of the Queen’s Armed Forces in receipt of pay, half-pay or pension
officers or members of the Armed Forces of the Commonwealth in receipt of pay but whose services are not wholly employed by the Commonwealth); or
has any direct or indirect pecuniary interest in any agreement with the Commonwealth Public Service in any way other than as a member in common with other members of an incorporated company consisting of more than 25 persons.9
(Office holders of the Parliament, such as the Speaker and President, do not hold offices under the Crown.)

A Member of the House of Representatives also becomes disqualified if he or she:

takes the benefit, whether by assignment, composition, or otherwise, of any law relating to bankrupt or insolvent debtors; or
directly or indirectly takes or agrees to take any fee or honorarium for services rendered to the Commonwealth, or for services rendered in the Parliament to any person or State.10
A Member of either the House of Representatives or the Senate is incapable of being chosen or of sitting as a Member of the other House.11 Thus, a Member of either House must resign if he or she wishes to stand as a candidate for election to the other Hous

http://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/ ... e/chapter5

Effectively, he continues to get his salary until a conviction is entered (if it is)
This will get very interesting now if the Legco try to expel him.
It would appear Michael Abbott QC has a few more hours of batting time
Just on the pre-nom, I'm not sure what the protocol is (ie) whether he gets to keep it

[Jimmy_041]

Booney, what do you think of this scenario (and i am not suggesting it happened here)

A virus sends an email from me with a link
You click on the link and it brings up such a website
Under today's decision: PING.........

[Booney]

Booney, what do you think of this scenario (and i am not suggesting it happened here)

A virus sends an email from me with a link
You click on the link and it brings up such a website
Under today's decision: PING.........

If that was the case I would think, hope, a judge would not be convinced beyond reasonable doubt that I took measures to access the material.

[Jimmy_041]

Booney, what do you think of this scenario (and i am not suggesting it happened here)

A virus sends an email from me with a link
You click on the link and it brings up such a website
Under today's decision: PING.........

If that was the case I would think, hope, a judge would not be convinced beyond reasonable doubt that I took measures to access the material.

Well, just from reading the Adelaide Now site, isn't this the inconsistency in the two decisions?
Judge Steven Millsteed found the Upper House MP guilty of accessing child pornography but cleared him of the second charge of attempting to access child pornography.

PS: just sent you an e-mail...............

[Booney]

It may have been two seperate incidents?

ie - Tried once, failed, tried again, succeeded.

[Jimmy_041]

Well, well, well, you read it here first
We picked the googly
He's not going anywhere anytime soon

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/bernard-finnigan-guilty-sa-court-hands-down-verdict-on-child-pornography-charge-against-former-sa-labor-mp/story-fni6uo1m-1227602771531

[Booney]

There's some legs left in this story yet.

He'll argue against a conviction, he'll most likely get a suspended sentence, both will be challenged and we'll pay for this bastard all the way through a high court challenge. He's not going to walk, his legal team have what they think is the ammunition to keep him in office, at least until it is all finished, some time in the future.

[Jimmy_041]

There's some legs left in this story yet.

He'll argue against a conviction, he'll most likely get a suspended sentence, both will be challenged and we'll pay for this bastard all the way through a high court challenge. He's not going to walk, his legal team have what they think is the ammunition to keep him in office, at least until it is all finished, some time in the future.

Someone else in Govt was so close to the above scenario but for different reasons....

[Dogwatcher]

Well...

[stan]

Well...

...then....

[nuggety goodness]

Appeal immediately announced.
I wonder if the prosecutor will also appeal the NG verdict.

What verdict?!? Leave me outta this garbage!!!

[Booney]

Well...

I/we/most of us didn't see that coming. Is this the first sign of admitting some guilt?

[am Bays]

Well...

I/we/most of us didn't see that coming. Is this the first sign of admitting some guilt?

Or some sign of a deal to keep his backers funding his legal costs or to avoid a conviction (acknowledge some guilt/fall on sword)

[Booney]

Well...

I/we/most of us didn't see that coming. Is this the first sign of admitting some guilt?

Or some sign of a deal to keep his backers funding his legal costs or to avoid a conviction (acknowledge some guilt/fall on sword)

I think there's no doubt he'll get a conviction, I think they'll be working on no custodial sentence ( unlikely for this level of offending anyway ) and a good behavior bond only.

[Grahaml]

Seems the search term has been released. Reading the paper today it's a weird thing but the incriminating part is the use of the word "tiny". Have to say, you'd have a hard time convinving me that's how you search specifically for child porn as opposed to slim or short porn. If (and that's obviously a big if) that is the entire basis of this case then given he's lost his job and the publicity surrounding this is so enormous, I'm inclined to think his request to not have a conviction recorded had merit.

No doubt at all anyone who goes out looking for child porn deserves to suffer for the rest of their lives. But I just can't bring myself to say for sure that there was anything in this that shows an intent to break the law or even negligence that he should have known.

[Mr Beefy]

Seems the search term has been released. Reading the paper today it's a weird thing but the incriminating part is the use of the word "tiny". Have to say, you'd have a hard time convinving me that's how you search specifically for child porn as opposed to slim or short porn. If (and that's obviously a big if) that is the entire basis of this case then given he's lost his job and the publicity surrounding this is so enormous, I'm inclined to think his request to not have a conviction recorded had merit.

No doubt at all anyone who goes out looking for child porn deserves to suffer for the rest of their lives. But I just can't bring myself to say for sure that there was anything in this that shows an intent to break the law or even negligence that he should have known.

"tiny" is only in one of the search terms he used, some of the others seemed quite specific to me

[Dogwatcher]

Talk of a Cabinet reshuffle keeps getting louder.

[heater31]

Talk of a Cabinet reshuffle keeps getting louder.

So the new pin up boy of the Legislative Council gets a gig?