Sharkfin,

A confessed terrorist becoming a national hero and getting a wonderful expensive return to the country may grate on you but you should tone it down a little. I'm sure many innocent people who had no interest in car bombing would have been included in the war casualties.

All,

Hopefully, this will be an eye opener for everyone with any cognitive capacity revealing how the media pick a side and report accordingly and their hero becomes a hero for the less discerning masses even if that hero is a terrorist. The same is obviously true if they decide to make someone a villain. The old saying don't believe everything you read has application here.

So Hicks supporters should pay the cost of his elaborate transport requirements, which is not only the cost of the plane, but also the ridiculous motorcade.

Should they also stump up for the cost of renovating the prime minister's dining room?

Obviously the two issues are unrelated but the thing they have in common is the willingness of this government to spend vast sums of money indulging their own interests. At the same time they tell us it would be economically irresponsible to spend money indulging OUR interests like, geez, I dunno, Medicare? Public education?

chainsmoker, in the light of public disclosure (and an election year) they have stopped the upgrade of the dining room (although they have already spent a lot of hours of somebodies taxes on consultants).
They will be spending yet more again on advertising to promote the "bosses choices" changes. They have spent a fortune on advertising suggesting that DV is all mens fault.

I saw an old interview with Howard from the lead up to the last election of the Keating era where he was complaining about the likely spend by that government on advertising in the lead up to the election.

They are all tarred with the same brush and much more determined to spend money in places that help their supporters and their election chances than leaving it with those who earned it or spending it on actual services.

R0bert

same old story, should we vote for tweedledum, or dee? is dee a bigger thief, or dum? does it really make any difference? they have bipartisan policies on most issues, and when the words are different- can you be sure they're not lying?

can't you think of an alternative to pollie rule? have a look at 'direct democracy' in switzerland.

Sharkfin:
"Hicks wrote in his letters home how he and his muslim friends converted Cashmere a village in India over to the Muslim faith. This was done at the point of a gun and was reported on the news with villagers being killed in the process. Prove that Hicks wasnt there and killed civilians."

OUR legal system requires the burden of proof in a criminal matter to fall on the prosecution. Therefore under our system the Crown would have to prove (beyond reasonable doubt, not on the balance of probabilities) that he was there and took part in the killing (although letters home would no doubt weigh quite well as evidence).

However, despite maybe not being able to prove that he killed someone, can we not have laws in Australia that make it illegal to coerce someone on religious grounds? It might be a good safeguard for the future, even if too late to get Hicks on it.....

Why are we being "treated" to descriptions of what Hicks had for breakfast? Why are we being further "treated" to speculations about visiting arrangements? Is it really important to know how he is dressed or whether he has "settled in". Why are members of the media still camped outside Yatala? What do they hope to learn? (Or are they waiting for his father and his lawyer to give up more anti-government offerings? Note - not a word of thanks from his father for bringing him home at taxpayer expense...it is nothing more than what is due to his greviously misunderstood and wrongly treated son who has apparently done nothing wrong.)
The media could close the issue down but they won't. It suits their purposes (and that of the ALP and certain radical groups)to keep it going.