Our Prime Minister is currently travelling
around the Asia-Pacific region, including Indonesia,
in an attempt to bring about mutual understanding
and greater economic benefits between us and these
countries.

Australians have always come to the aid of these
countries financially, in times of crisis. Our
people's generousity during the tsunami tragedy
helped many in the region. And this will continue
to be the case in the future.

I watched the Prime Minister on the news last night
being welcomed in Indonesia... and my thoughts turned
to Schapelle Corby, and the other young people currently
rotting in Indonesian jails for drug smuggling.

This thread is not about their guilt or innocence - its
about the severity of their sentences. According to
Australian legislation - they would now be free - having
served their time. Drug offences in this country - are
not punishable by either death, or 20 year sentences.
They are considered minor infringements.

Can't our Prime Minister negotiate a deal with Indonesia -
to bring these young people home - to finish their sentences
in Australia? A case could surely be made during this
opportune time in negotiations - between Australia and
Indonesia - to see that Australian citizens don't continue
to rot in Indonesian jails for minor drug offences.

Your thoughts please?

Foxy I agree that Rudd should be doing everything in his power to bring Shapelle Corby home. As for the others, I’m not so sure. But he should certainly be lobbying for considerably less harsh sentences.

Australia would then presumably to be open to the same sort of requests from Indonesia. But I can’t see why that would be a problem.

I think the case for bringing Corby home needs to be kept quite separate from the Bali Nine, as her guilt is very much in doubt, whereas they appear to be incontrovertibly guilty.

She did the Crime in Indonesia, she should do the time in Indonesia.

She is where she is through her own greed and stupidity, although some of that stupidity might well be genetic, if her father is any indicator.

I see no merit in anyone bothering to defend this drug peddling skank.

Dear Col,

That's a tad harsh.

Would you still feel the same way if this
was your daughter or grandchild or member
of your family?

Remember, some fo the Bali bombers
have already been released.
It seems the country serves up a
double standard when it comes to the
dispensation of justice - especially to
their own people.

I don't have much time for Corby in her role as an ambassador for Australia's moron bogan underclass, but surely there's some sympathy for someone so irredeemably stupid that she thought there was a profit in sneaking pot IN to Indonesia.

We should bring her home and strap a Stackhat permanently to her head to protect the poor darling from herself.

"Would you still feel the same way if this
was your daughter or grandchild or member
of your family"

Two points

If one of my daughters were to do something so criminal as to traffic in drugs, she could consider herself no longer one of my daughters.

However, that is purely hypothetical. Neither of my daughters would consider dealing drugs. They feel very similar as me.

In fact, the elder one used to tell her mother how her mother was jeopardising her health through smoking in the housing and exposing her to the dangers of passive smoking.

I have had several personal experiences of the worst possible outcomes from illicit drugs which evolve around people dying who I knew, including one recently who was slashed to death with a kitchen knife by a someone with marujiana induced schizephenia.

I have no sympathy for drug dealers, the only thing I would see done differently with Corby is to put her on death row, if she had committed a previous drug trafficking offence.