Transferred from the Politics Forum at the request of Dub the moderator. This is a non political post.
Labor, or at least Rudd, doesn't stand anywhere.
"01 February 2008
No comment on Hicks profits, says Rudd
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says it's not his place to determine whether former Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks should be allowed to profit from selling his story.
.....
But his father, Terry Hicks, says it is reasonable that David be paid should he decide to tell his story after that date.
Mr Rudd said the proceeds of crime laws were designed to prohibit criminals profiting from their story, but acknowledged there were "peculiarities" to the Hicks case.
"Therefore if he proceeded in that direction it would be a matter for what the police did and what then the DPP (Director of Public Prosecutions) did independently under the powers vested in that act," he told the Fairfax Radio Network.
"It's not a question for a PM or a politician to say how a particular piece of legislation applies to individual circumstances."
Pressed whether he believed Mr Hicks should be allowed to profit from his story, Mr Rudd said: "I think what I believe in is the independence of the law and the independence of our courts and judicial processes.
"I'm not going to make a judgment as to how the detail of his case applies to the proceeds of crime act, that's up to others."
Mr Rudd said media organisations should be mindful of what the law says when bidding for the Hicks' story.
"My overall instincts in terms of the media ... I err strongly in the direction of maximal media scrutiny," he said.
