1. Is there ever an excuse for drink driving? Forty-seven-year-old mother Jane Hatch has explained to the NT News that she has had her faith in police shattered after she was recently convicted of drink driving, and lost her licence for six months. But the reason she was drink driving? Her son suffered a serious asthma attack – during a blackout no less, which meant his respirator was not working – and so she chose to drive him to hospital. Ms Hatch, who has never had a previous traffic offence, said outside the Darwin Magistrate’s Court: “I just feel really bullied.”
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2. Former Speaker of the House Peter Slipper has revealed that he will be re-contesting his seat in the electorate of Fraser in the upcoming federal election. His wife also spoke in his defence during the press conference. Mrs Slipper denied reports that their marriage was a sham. She said: “Our marriage is real, I love Peter.”
Mrs Slipper continued, “I have stuck by Peter, I love Peter, there is so many things you guys don’t understand about him. He’s made some mistakes, yes. But he is actually a really nice, decent, kind-hearted guy. You just don’t really understand him and I think that is really sad.”
During the time of the previous government, Slipper left the Liberal party after wrangling a deal with Julia Gillard to become speaker. He was then forced to resign from his post, after he was accused of sexually harassing a male staff member. In addition, he compared female genitalia to shellfish.
3. The Coalition has confirmed that it will not be releasing the party’s full costings until the last week of the election. The Liberal party has been under pressure from Kevin Rudd to reveal how the party plans to ‘pay for its promises’.
The Coalition will however release its asylum seekers policy today. Coalition spokesperson Scott Morrison said they planned to return to a “non-statutory administrative process,” similar to what was in place when John Howard was Prime Minister.
University of Chicago economist Emily Oster5. A Victorian court has heard that a 30-year-old man who murdered a Ballarat woman while her four-year-old son was in the house had almost 100 prior convictions and was on parole for rape when the murder occured. The court heard Jason John Dinsley met Sharon Denise Siermans on an online dating site two years before he broke into her house and beat her to death.
6. An Egyptian government-imposed ‘all-night curfew’ in Cairo and 13 other provinces has been lifted. The curfew was imposed after the worst violence seen in Egypt since the 2011 uprising, with the death toll at over 500.
7. A Russian TV host who lost his job in January after he went on air and admitted he was gay is now speaking out against a proposed boycott on the Sochi Winter Olympics. Thirty-seven-year-old Anton Krasovsky told the media: “Russian gay people need international support, but international support is not a boycott of Sochi Olympic games, because Olympic games is an international event. It’s not a Russian event, it’s not a personal event of Putin, it’s an event of millions and millions of people … 7 million people in Russia are gay. If you want to boycott Olympic games in Russia, you’re trying to boycott 7 million gay people in Russia. You want to boycott me.”
The proposed boycott of the games comes in response to Russia’s strict rules against homosexuality.
Top Comments
She feels as though she was bullied? SHE got into the car and drove her son whilst intoxicated. SHE then made the decision to get back into the car again and continue driving. I wonder how SHE would feel if a drunk driver had hit her son whilst attempting to drive their own child to the hospital. It is so wrong. I understand the urge to protect your child but that never gives you the right to put innocent people in danger. Wait for an ambulance. I am just disgusted in this woman.
The law cant change just because your reason for breaking it seems more valid than someone elses. Id drive in the same position. But Id also cop the punishment on the chin and be done with it.