The King's Power Mark 4:35-5:20 Prayer 25/1/15

Heavenly Father,

We live in awe of your amazing power. You make clouds rise from the ends of the earth, you send lightning with the rain and bring out the wind from your storehouses - We can't accurately predict if it's going to rain. You wield armies like a club, dispatching them against your enemies and your people with perfect precision - we cannot prevent innocent casualties. You own every animal in the forest, and the cattle on a thousand hills - we can't even feed the hungry. Sick people begged to touch the edge of Jesus' cloak, and were healed - we can't even cure a cold. You have power over Satan and his demons - we struggle to believe that demons are even real.

You have all this amazing power, and yet like rebellious peasants, we rise up against you, and fail to follow your commands. But instead of crushing us, you use the incredible power of your love to save us, even at the cost of the life of your beloved son Jesus. Help us to see the amazing value of our salvation, and to live lives that bring the glory to you that you deserve. Give us a hunger to discern your will, and a thirst to follow in your ways. Give us minds that accept your total power. Give us hearts that call out to you to use that power for our good and for your glory.  And give us faith to put the two together, and realise that you are all-powerful, and you are using your power for our good and to your glory, even if we don't see it or understand it. Give us the humility to accept that we don't see the full picture, but that you do, and we can, and should, trust you to use your power better than we ever could.

It is with this humble faith that we pray for those amongst us who are suffering from sickness, from financial hardship, from persecution because of their faith, and from loneliness. We pray that you will lift them up in their difficult circumstances, and that you will bring them healing, plenty, peace and fellowship. But we pray that you will also give us all the faith to know that you already have them all within your hand. Help us to trust you whatever our situation. Give us the secret of being content in any and every situation - well fed or hungry, in plenty or in want. But also give us the compassion to ensure that none of our brothers or sisters are hungry or in want. You give to us in plenty so that we can give to others in your name. Help us to give our money, our time, our presence and our peace to those who need it most, knowing that you have an unending store of all of these things at your disposal. And we pray for those who are lost, who are far from you - bring them into your family, and make them one of yours. Help us to accept everyone that you bring into our family with us.

We pray by the authority of Jesus, Amen.

The Hidden Kingdom Mark 4:1-34 Prayer 18/1/15

Heavenly Father,

We live in a complex and complicated world. You have created a universe so vast we can scarcely comprehend it. We are amazed by the enormous variety of colours, shapes, sizes and numbers of things that you surround us with. Even thinking about the number of people on earth, and the huge resources that it takes to provide for them, is phenomenal. And yet you provide for us, and even for all the animals that live on earth too. Amazing.

You are a mysterious God in many ways.  There are so many things we don't understand, so many secrets that life holds. We do not understand the depths of the universe, but nor do we even fully know everything about the world we live in. There are mysteries even about the simple things of everyday life.  We thank you that you have control over all things, that you are at work in so many miraculous ways that we can't even see. You know everything there is to know, and we are glad you are in charge.

We also thank you that you let us discover so many new things, and that all the time people are making new discoveries about the world we have lived in for so many thousands of years. New animals, new cures for disease, new corners of the oceans, new things in space, new technologies for doing things that our grandparents would never have imagined.  We also thank you that you reveal to us things that we specifically do not know.  We thank you for education, for the ability to learn, and for those who dedicate themselves to teaching us. And we thank you for your precious word, contained in the Bible for us. We ask that as we continue to read it, you will continue to reveal more about yourself and your plan to us, and that you will build our faith in you, so that even when we don't know, we will trust that you have everything in hand. We pray for those who instruct us in your word, that you will give them all good things. We pray for Nick as he preaches to us tonight.

We thank you for the recent revelation about our new minister, Martin, and his wife Jasmine. Please be with them as they bring their ministry at Balmain to an end, and give them whatever they need to start here with us at Waitara fresh and motivated to serve you. We also thank you that the commendation service for Bruce and Heather Stanley went well at Eastwood church. We thank you for leading them in your will, and pray that you will use the Stanleys powerfully at that church, and bless Eastwood through them.

We pray for those who are struggling through sickness, financial difficulties, or other problems that make life hard.  We don't always understand why we are suffering, and we can have an expectation that you should make things better.  In those times, help us to remember Christ Jesus, who has shown the power to fix all of our problems.  Give those who are struggling through difficult times a strong faith in you, and a firm foundation on Christ, the forgiveness of our sins, our unbreakable relationship with you, and our assured place in heaven for all eternity.

It is by the authority of Jesus, and as his brothers and sisters, that we pray all these things.  Amen

Results of survey taken in January 2015 by legal transcriptionists of 58 ERISPs

In January 2015, I conducted a study of 58 records of interviews of persons of interest conducted by NSW police.  Six other legal transcriptionists at Spark and Cannon NSW assisted me gathering the data. The sample was random: ERISPs (Electronically Recorded Interview of a Suspected Person) of persons of interest (POIs) were chosen according to normal work practices, which are based on a due date rather than any content of the interview. Interviews of witnesses, or of children, have been excluded.

Each transcriptionist answered five questions of each interview they transcribed:

• The record number - for identification of the ERISP (because of copyright and confidentiality issues, no other details about the ERISP were recorded).
• Did the POI have a lawyer present? This was obvious to the transcriptionist from video footage.
• Did the POI  receive legal advice? If mentioned in the interview, this was noted as either yes or no. If not mentioned, it was noted as unknown.
• Did the POI attempt to remain silent during the interview? This question was answered in the affirmative if any attempt was made by the POI to remain silent. So a 'yes' to this question would represent a single question being answered with 'no comment', no verbal reply, or something similar.
• Was the POI successful in remaining silent in the interview? This required a level of judgment on the transcriptionist's behalf, based on the perceived aim of the POI. For instance, if the POI only attempted to remain silent to one question, were they successful in refusing to answer that question in the face of police pressure in the interview?  Or if the POI was trying to remain silent throughout the entire interview, were they successful in refusing to answer any question of the police?

Because about 53% (31 of 58) of the interviews did not mention whether the POI had received any legal advice, analysis has been done both only of those cases where this information was available, and over the whole of the cases analysed.  In the analysis of all of the cases, these interviews are treated as interviews where the POI has not had legal advice.  This decision is based on my experience of transcribing many hundreds of ERISPs and observing the general actions of police in ERISPs in NSW over the last five years.

With respect to the right to silence the following characteristics were noted:

• No POIs had a lawyer present in their interview (0 of 58).  Experience tells me that this is a very rare occurrence. In David Dixon's research,(1) his number of 0.76% of interviews having a lawyer present are probably generous.
• About 22% of POIs obtained legal advice when excluding unknowns (6/27), but this drops sharply to about 10% when the unknowns are included (6 of 58).
• About 17% POIs attempted to remain silent in at least part of their interview (10 of 58).
• Excluding unknowns, only one POI attempted silence without legal advice (3.7%, 1 of 27), but this rises to around 8% when including the unknowns (5 of 58), which is the same number of POIs who attempted silence having had legal advice (5 of 58).
• Only half of those who attempted to remain silent were judged to have successfully remained silent in their interview (5 of 10).  Excluding unknowns, the one POI who attempted to remain silent without advice did not succeed.  Including the unknowns, 40% of those without legal advice successfully remained silent (2 of 5), where 60% of those with advice succeeded in remaining silent (3 of 5).

No observations were requested from the transcriptionists, but several were recorded at any rate.

In R0351663, it was unknown if the POI received legal advice.  The POI remained silent on one charge (successfully), but did not remain silent on two other charges.

In R0353835, the POI received legal advice only partway through the interview.  The POI was clearly heavily intoxicated and distressed (both observably and stated so).  After considerable questioning by the police the POI requested legal advice, and (after a two hour suspension of the interview) then successfully remained silent for the rest of the interview.

In R0349934, the POI was under the influence of drugs (both observably and stated so), and did not understand his rights. The POI had no legal advice, and did not attempt to remain silent.

Conclusion

The incidence of a lawyer being present in an interview has been commented on elsewhere as being extremely low.  That finding was replicated here.(2)  The rate of POIs exercising their right to silence seems high when the unknowns are excluded, but with their inclusion as having no legal advice, falls to about 10%, which is in line with other studies.(3)

Of particular interest is that only half of those who attempted to remain silent succeeded. Again, this is in keeping with my anecdotal experience in viewing ERISPs. This is of concern, although a fairly high level of persistence in police interrogation in an ERISP is accepted by the courts.(4)  A 50% rate of failure to remain silent when a POI wishes to exercise their right to silence raises a concern that this right's value is limited without the presence of a lawyer(5) or perhaps a support person.

It is difficult to come to any clear finding on whether having received telephone legal advice makes a difference to the POI's ability to successfully remain silent given the low numbers of those who succeeded.  A wider-ranging study would be useful in discovering what correlation there was between the type of offence, the state of sobriety of the POI, and the reception of legal advice by the POI, in whether attempts to remain silent are successful. It would be interesting to see both what bearing police interrogation tactics have on the ability of a POI to remain silent, as well as whether those tactics are targeted more towards POIs who have not received legal advice, or otherwise seem vulnerable.

1. David Dixon, Interrogating Images: Audio-visually Recorded Police Questioning of Suspects (Institute of Criminology, 2007) 126.

2. Ibid; Federation of Community Legal Centres (Vic) Inc, Submission to the Parliamentary Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee Inquiry into the Right to Silence, July 1998, 10-11; Derwent Coshott, A Hollow Ring: The Right to Silence (29 July 2013) DerwentCoshott.com <http://www.derwentcoshott.com/2013/07/a-hollow-ring-right-to-silence-under-s.html>.

3. New South Wales Law Reform Commission, The Right to Silence, Report No 95 (2000),16; Dixon, above n 1; Federation of Community Legal Centres (Vic) Inc, above n 2, 10, appendix 1.

4. MacKenzie v The Queen (2004) 150 A Crim R 451 453-4, 464-6.

5. Anthony Gray, 'Constitutionally Heeding the Right to Silence in Australia' (2012) 39 Monash University Law Review 156, 184.

Comment regarding article about One Term Tony

The original article is here.

This article is too tongue-in-cheek - perhaps because they feel we need to laugh, or we'll cry - and so it paints a picture that is just too far on the side of fantasy. Real political parties don't try to lose power. If there were one (major) party that was capable of going off the deep end, it would be the Libs, because their policy decisions don't have to be vetted through a caucus. There has been a little bit of rumblings of whinging from Liberal backbenchers occasionally, but that's fairly normal.

I think this article uncovers a reality that perhaps even it doesn't want to acknowledge. In 2013 the Liberal Party were faced with an election they could not lose - a hung parliament being run by a female prime minister who was bringing in an unpopular tax. If you can't lose the election, it is an opportunity to bring in a leader who slashes and burns the country so that they can shape it into a country that best suits your political purposes. With that agenda in mind, consider this: Abbott is trying to do in one term what Howard also tried to do in four terms - shift the political landscape to make it undeniably more favourable towards the Liberal Party. Blatant lies and attacks on the marginalised are not radicalising the masses, but are apathising them. They have big ticket items that might fail - the GP co-pay, for instance - but they are a mixture of toe in the water policies (how much of a stir will this create?) and ingenious smokescreens for each other. Think back over all the really disgusting policies: GP co-pays, six months of starvation for the unemployed, slashing funding to the ABC, deregulating university fees. Now think about these things that you noticed in amongst all those - a massive cut to our foreign aid, an increase in our deficit, rising unemployment, and the treatment of refugees. Now think about things you perhaps didn't even hear about. There are just so many. It is designed to wear down and tire out those people who aren't going to vote for him anyway. People are forced to forget so many despicable things.

Their re-election model will be simple: a straightforward message appealing to middle Australia (my guess is it will be something like "We'll Make The Tough Decisions" - but it might equally play to something that arises closer to election time, since they get to choose when the election will be), funded by Big Business who know that the Libs will look after them. You don't need to win the people. You don't need to win the debates. You just need to win the elections. The ALP is playing small target politics, waiting for the Libs to lose. But that just means the Libs have no opposition - they have pulled out the opposition's teeth, making them irrelevant by saying outlandish things and not getting any pushback. If the ALP found themselves a powerful, charismatic leader, then the Libs might get rattled, and Tony would probably be gone (and Turnbull might take his place). Again, that is what would give them the best chance of winning the election. But there are no powerful, charismatic ALP leaders to be found.

Abbott et al are not crazy. They are idealists. They really believe that killing welfare and freeing up the market are the best things they can do for Australia. But they are also realists. They daren't throw power away. Better to scorch the political earth and rule over the smoldering ruins.