This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/jul/23/melbourne-mother-calls-for-justice-after-daughter-killed-in-cbd-apartment
The article has changed 8 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Daniel Andrews says family ‘deserve better’ than Dutton comments about woman’s death | |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, says the family of a woman who was killed in a Melbourne CBD apartment brawl “deserve better”, after her death prompted a political debate about law and order in the state. | |
| Laa Chol, 19, died during am out-of-control party in a short-term stay unit on the 56th floor of the EQ Tower early on Saturday morning. | |
| Chol’s mother and a cousin spoke of their grief and loss at the weekend, calling for “justice” for the young aspiring lawyer. | |
| “I’m speechless ... I don’t know what I’m going to do without her,” her mother, Ojwanga Abalo, told the Herald Sun. “Just whenever you saw her, it was a happy moment ... there were no sad moments.” | |
| The federal home affairs minister, Peter Dutton, told Fairfax Media on Sunday night the death of Chol was a “tragic and needless loss”, but also evidence of a “major law and order problem in Victoria”. It comes a week after Malcolm Turnbull warned of community concern about “Sudanese gangs”. | |
| Andrews refused to engage with Dutton’s comments on Monday, referring to him as “that person”, but he also told ABC Radio that Chol’s family “deserve better than what they’ve been getting” since her death. | |
| “I don’t think her family will be getting much comfort from this conversation,” he said, adding that the tragedy was as much “a violence-against-women issue as it is anything else”. | |
| Andrews also said the government was open to further regulation within the short-term. | |
| Chol cousin, Nyawie Dau, said, “We need justice for Laa. They need to find whoever did this.” | |
| Chol, from Pakenham, died at the scene shortly after 5am following a fight between the group that had hired the apartment and another that arrived later. | Chol, from Pakenham, died at the scene shortly after 5am following a fight between the group that had hired the apartment and another that arrived later. |
| In a statement to Fairfax Media, Dutton accused the Victorian government of not doing enough to tackle youth crime in the state. | |
| “We don’t have these problems with Sudanese gangs in New South Wales or Queensland,” he said. | |
| Speaking on Monday, Andrews also rejected suggestions the government was not facing up to youth crime in Melbourne, saying no one was “denying that there is a significant challenge”. | |
| He suggested the fact Victoria police had a gangs squad was proof the state government had acknowledged the problem. | |
| The killer remains on the run. | The killer remains on the run. |
| Australian Associated Press contributed to this report | |
| Crime - Australia | Crime - Australia |
| Melbourne | Melbourne |
| Victoria | Victoria |
| Daniel Andrews | |
| Victorian politics | |
| Peter Dutton | |
| news | news |
| Share on Facebook | Share on Facebook |
| Share on Twitter | Share on Twitter |
| Share via Email | Share via Email |
| Share on LinkedIn | Share on LinkedIn |
| Share on Pinterest | Share on Pinterest |
| Share on Google+ | Share on Google+ |
| Share on WhatsApp | Share on WhatsApp |
| Share on Messenger | Share on Messenger |
| Reuse this content | Reuse this content |