As a member of the small niche independent media landscape, The Echo is acutely aware that this job is not just being a journal of public record, but a reporter on how governments behave. And treat us.
This outlook is unlike how corporate mainstream media operates; they fail to hold power to account because they see themselves as cheerleaders for the establishment.
So, are governments making things better for everyone?
Are they committed to making difficult and nuanced decisions to address the structural causes of crime, for example?
Or are they addicted to easy, lazy options that prop up a broken system that they are a part of?
There’s answers for all the issues raised throughout the news section of this edition when it comes to crime. It just take a bit of courage and honesty.
On page 1, Justine Elliot MP should explain what she is doing to fund the Indigenous Crime Prevention Program that the NSW Labor government axed last year.
On page 2, it’s clear that NSW government funding for domestic family violence (DFV) is inadequate, and has been for some time.
Perhaps money can be found within the $1B a year NSW police budget? As the police have no requirements around budget expenditure, they put their priorities before the public.
Boosted DFV policing could replace expensive cannabis helicopters and dog squads, for example.
Again on page 2, legal experts are being ignored around NSW youth bail laws.
Incarcerating children should be the last resort of any civil society, but locking them up is clearly the first choice for NSW Labor.
Instead of judicial discretion, prescriptive laws continue to send young people and adults behind bars.
It leads to longer-term problems, such as high rates of recidivism, and difficulties with reintegration back into society.
Which is costly and unnecessary.
On page 7, legal experts were again ignored in favour of mandatory minimum sentences around hate crimes.
Being ‘tough on crime’ is an old, outdated, punitive paradigm.
As a blanket deterrence, it is has not worked.
But intervention programs, such as youth mentoring, education initiatives, mental health services, and skills training, do work.
Fun fact: the average cost per year to imprison an Australian is approximately $147,890, according to www.justicereforminitiative.org.au.
Don’t be like America
Australia appears to be following the type of policies that gained traction during the war on drugs in the US. It has led to the US having the sixth-highest incarceration rate on the planet, at 531 people incarcerated per 100,000 population.
In Australia it was 207.8 persons per 100,000 adult population in 2024, according to www.abs.gov.au.
And according to Vice, approximately 20.5 per cent of the Australian prison population is held in privately-operated facilities, ‘a significantly higher proportion compared to the US, where the figure is about eight per cent’.
Ultimately, to address the root cause of crime, the government should be focused on providing every Australian with an opportunity to escape entrenched generational poverty. And re-nationalise the prison system!
Hans Lovejoy, editor
News tips are welcome: [email protected]
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
