LESS SYMPATHY FOR ALLEGED DRUG-SMUGGLER!

ON A SATURDAY morning in Canberra, having survived another week of life's
financial, employment, domestic and business pressures, The Canberra Times
taxpayer reader is subjected to something of a pathetic, whingeing article
on the non-availability of our scarce funds for legal aid for a foreign
national (Tongan) charged with drug smuggling (CT, September 12, p.4).

As I drove off in my 28-year-old vehicle to do my duty at the school
Parents and Friends' fund-raising fair, hoping for a few thousand dollars
with which to shore up government shortfalls in education expenditure, I
thought how ashamed I should be. Those poor lawyers having lost their
fund-raising capacity, almost totally reliant on government handouts for
criminal practice! Can't live out their passion!

Why not pass the hat around in the Tongan community? Work for a fixed fee?
Focus the mind on the real issues in the upcoming legal hearing! The
Australian ratepayer funds significant government and church-based aid
programs in the Pacific region, including Tonga. We fund a legal framework
with a full opportunity for a defendant to require proof beyond reasonable
doubt. More?! If the legal-aid industry isn't happy, it can call for public
donations to a fund for alleged drug-smugglers.

Good luck!

CHRISTOPHER RYAN Watson

Checked-by: Pat Dolan