How convenient is this? The new drunk driving law may remove a first time offense from a criminal charge just in time to save Liberal MLA Jane Thornthwaite’s backside having been caught driving drunk in February of this year. Under this law she may not face a criminal conviction if she is charged and found guilty.
No charges were laid at the time, and it took weeks before the government appointed a special prosecutor to determine if charges should be laid. As far as I know she still has not been charged, and we still don’t know how much over the limit her blood alcohol level was at the time.
Now the government introduces a law that gives the police unprecedented powers to issue roadside suspensions, vehicle impoundment and fines before a charge is laid and the driver being found guilty in court.
Of course, the Campbell government has NO moral authority when it comes to the matter of driving drunk. It was ok for the Premier to drive “shitfaced” to use the vernacular, and simply cry a bit and say sorry. It is ok for his MLA to admit her drunken driving was unacceptable, because for Campbell and his gang there are never any consequences. Life goes on. As for the rest of us, Campbell sees nothing wrong with giving the police the power to revoked our license, impound our car, and issue us a fine before we are even charged.
The worst part of this announcement is that it is couched in terms of ‘hey everyone look how strict and responsible we’re being on the question of driving drunk. Then we read the fine print and find out that by ‘strict’ they mean potentially ‘downgrading’ the penalty for first timers like their own MLA.
What absolute hypocrisy!