Photo opportunities galore but no justice for Dean Hofstee in Brumby’s India trip

Something is wrong when John Brumby travels around India saying what a safe and just place Victoria is, yet he won’t lift a finger to achieve justice for Dean Hofstee and his family.

Shadow Attorney-General Robert Clark said today that John Brumby had found plenty of time to stage photo opportunities on his trip to India, but his refusal to find time to raise this important issue with the Indian authorities was appalling.

“Clearly photo opportunities are more important to John Brumby than seeking justice for Dean Hofstee’s family,” Mr Clark said.

“John Brumby should be doing everything in his power to make sure Puneet Puneet is returned to Australia to face justice for the culpable driving in October 2008, for which he has already pleaded guilty, resulting in the death of Dean Hofstee.

“His trip to India is doing little to restore Victoria’s reputation following repeated violent attacks against international students.

“Rob Hulls said a few weeks ago that no cost would be spared to achieve justice for Dean Hofstee and his family, yet a lot of taxpayers’ money has been spent on John Brumby’s trip without him lifting a finger to achieve justice for Dean and his family.

“John Brumby should have put this on the agenda – he has held a number of meetings with high-ranking Indian officials at which he should have raised the issue.

“It’s not good enough for John Brumby to just do a series of photo opportunities – he should stand up for Victorians and stand up for justice.

“The Australian and Victorian justice systems were badly damaged when an offender who had already pleaded guilty to culpable driving allegedly borrowed a mate’s passport and was able to use it to leave the country. John Brumby should have done everything he could try to repair the damage and achieve justice for Dean Hofstee’s family.

“He should have raised with Indian officials the opportunities for extradition of Mr Puneet – there are extradition arrangements covering India and other Commonwealth nations and John Brumby should have been doing everything possible to prompt Indian officials to activate those arrangements.

“The best thing that John Brumby could do to attract Indian students back to Victoria is ensure that our streets are safe for everybody. He needs to put more police on our streets, he must have a zero tolerance attitude to violent crime and he has to introduce tougher sentencing to show that you can’t get away with committing violent crime in Victoria.

“John Brumby’s visit to India will have achieved little unless he can actually demonstrate that Victoria is a safe place to visit, and when you see violence on the streets every night of the week, that’s just not happening,” Mr Clark said.