1998 Ngo replaces the controversial Chinese characters recognising the Taiwan government. Photo: Carlotta McIntosh
Thirty years ago on the night of Monday 5 September, 1994 Cabramatta MP John Newman was shot and fatally wounded in the driveway of his home. The murder made headlines around the world and Newman was given a state funeral. Vietnamese-born former Fairfield Councillor Phuong Canh Ngo was sentenced to jail for life without parole for killing Newman in order to take his place in parliament. His two alleged accomplices Quang Dao and David Dinh were acquitted. Ngo was arrested in 1998 and his papers have been marked never to be released. He continues to maintain he is innocent.
Ngo is a model prisoner. He has served 26 years behind bars in some of our toughest prisons. He is 66. If he lives to the age of 80 or 90, he will have served the equivalent of two life sentences. As the law in NSW stands at present, he has no right to a review of his sentence and will die in jail.
This lock-them-up-and-throw-away-the-key mentality harks back to the convict era when public floggings and death by hanging were commonplace. Today we believe we are better than that and routinely lecture dictatorships such as Myanmar and China for human rights abuses against minorities. As Australians we claim the moral high ground on human rights, yet when it comes to sentencing laws, we are seriously out of step with the international community.
Driven by victims’ impact groups, sensationalist media and politicians eager to benefit from the law-and-order vote, we have confused justice with vengeance, an eye for an eye, a life for a life.
Former NSW Director of Public Prosecutions Nicholas Cowdery has argued in his biography Frank and Fearless that apart from the financial cost of keeping a prisoner in jail – more than $70,000 per annum – it is doubtful that society or the prisoner benefits. Cowdery is calling for change in the legislation to allow for a review of life sentences.
Pope Francis agrees. “The practice of keeping a prisoner in jail removes all hope and is generally considered inhumane.”
Sentencing Ngo to life, Supreme Court Justice Dunford said he would have set a parole date but was prevented by mandatory sentencing laws. Quoting Section 19A of the NSW Crimes Act, Justice Dunford said Ngo’s crime fell into the worst category of crimes.
“I am satisfied to the criminal standard that Phuong Ngo’s motive for the killing of John Newman was naked political ambition and impatience. He wanted to be the Legislative Assembly member for Cabramatta. (…) He could not wait until the next general election due in 1999, so he needed to remove John Newman as the sitting member in order that he could run in the pre-selection ballot which, on the numbers, he had a very good chance of winning. The method he chose was to have John Newman killed.”
There is a credible body of evidence to show that the judge was incorrect. Over lunch in Chinatown, about nine hours before the murder on 5 September, the General Secretary of the NSW ALP John Della Bosca offered the Cabramatta seat to Ngo, who declined because he wanted and indeed expected to go to the upper house, not the lower house where Newman sat. This evidence was verified by a police running sheet entry of an interview with Della Bosca.
Federal Labor MPs Ted Grace and Grahame Richardson also gave evidence that Ngo wanted to go to the upper house. Newman was the candidate for 1995 and the endorsement could not be overturned, Della Bosca said. But anyone who has followed ALP politics knows that the party bosses in Sussex Street have a history of overruling the branches and installing candidates of their choosing. We saw that in the federal electorate of Fowler when Christina Keneally was parachuted in over the local candidate, Tu Le.
In Europe a similar British provision for life imprisonment with no mechanism for review was declared to be inhuman by the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights. The court held that for a life sentence to remain compatible with Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, there must be a possibility of review of a life sentence.
Under NSW truth in sentencing legislation there is no provision for review, no glimmer of hope for offenders who have been sentenced to life. Review is an assessment, based on criteria such as rehabilitation, whether or not they pose a threat to society, prison records and years served. In NSW, truth in sentencing laws do not allow judges to exercise discretion and are out of step with international human rights agreements to which Australia is a signatory.
Phuong Ngo’s glory Labor days seen here with PM Bob Hawke Fairfield MP Janice Crosio. Photo: Carlotta McIntosh
Ngo joined the Labor party in 1993 and for a while he was the golden son. The Governor General Bill Hayden opened the Mekong Club where Ngo held large party branch meetings. Bob Hawke and Grahame Richardson visited Cabramatta. But when Ngo was arrested and charged with the murder, the party bosses turned their thumbs down and threw him to the lions.
At the time of the murder the NSW 1995 state elections were due in six months. Labor opposition leader Bob Carr had high hopes of becoming Premier, but he feared negative publicity over the conduct of two Labor MPs, John Newman and St Marys MP Tony Aquilina would damage prospects for a Labor victory. Newman was the subject of a 4 Corners investigation that he was bullying his staff, and Aquilina was accused of accepting a bribe.
Moreover, Newman’s successor Reba Meagher provided new evidence that wasn’t heard at the trial. In 2007 she told a judicial inquiry into Ngo’s conviction that on 5 September 1994 Della Bosca had offered her a choice between St Marys and Cabramatta. She said Delle Bosca told her there were “two MPs who probably would not be contesting the next election”. The MPs were Tony Aquilina and John Newman.
One month after the Newman murder on Friday 7 October 1994, page one of the Canberra Times reported that the St Marys MP was destined for the high jump.
“NSW Labor back bencher Tony Aquilina – facing the end of his political career at the urging of NSW Labor leader Bob Carr – says the moves against him could be part of a broader political agenda.
“Mr Carr has written to state Labor general secretary John Della Bosca recommending Mr Aquilina be dis-endorsed for failing to “measure up to the standard that I think the party is entitled to demand from people who have the honour of representing the Labor Party in the state parliament”.
Fairfield Councillor Phuong Ngo’s last public appearance in Cabramatta before his arrest on March 13, 1998. Photo: Carlotta McIntosh
Unfortunately for Ngo, the jury believed the prosecution narrative – that Ngo killed Newman for his seat in parliament. Bob Carr has denied in writing to this writer that Newman was about to lose his endorsement. “If he had been I would have known about it.”
This is not an argument for Ngo’s innocence, but an appeal for a review of his sentence. He has been through an inquest, a committal hearing, three trials, an appeal and a judicial inquiry and was found guilty. Guilty or not, he has served 26 years for murder and the identity of the killer is still unknown. It is to be hoped that Ngo is guilty. Otherwise this story will be a stain on our justice system.
It is time for NSW to abolish mandatory sentences and to trust in the wisdom and experience of our judges, to honour our commitments to progressive human rights and build a judicial system based on justice not vengeance.
A Criminal Cases Review Commission such as has been set up in the UK, Canada and New Zealand could, where appropriate, review the sentences or the conditions of the sentences of lifers who have served 25 years or more in detention.
Ngo has already served more than one life sentence. It is time for mercy.
