Alarm spreads about our rights

The more detail that emerges about the Government's next round of anti-terror legislation, the deeper the fear grows.

"It will be an offence to offer support to any country, group or force against which Australian troops are engaged. To put this into perspective, the students and unionists who chanted 'Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh' in the anti-Vietnam demonstrations could be jailed for seven years under the proposed laws. If they are even suspected of helping to organise demonstrations where such chanting took place, they could be summarily arrested and held without charge for indefinite interrogation. If this is not quite the 'thoughtcrime' George Orwell envisaged in 1984, it is the nearest thing to it."

Mungo McCallum in the Northern Rivers Echo, October 20

"The Victorian Premier, Steve Bracks, has split with the Federal Government on sedition, despite supporting most of its anti-terrorism legislation.
"The proposed changes to the sedition law were too broad and a threat to free speech, he said."

Ian Munro reporting in the Sydney Morning Herald, November 14

"Minister Philip Ruddock was probably ready, after an exhausting week, to clutch at almost anything to get a 'yes' from the backbenchers.
"But this is not logical. As Labor's spokeswoman Nicola Roxon has pointed out, it's hardly sensible to pass a flawed provision while at the same time agreeing to revisit it almost immediately."

Michelle Grattan in the Sun-Herald on the proposed review of sedition offices next year, November 6

"For example, take the situation of a female minor aged between 16 and 18 who is detained.
"In accordance with her rights under this bill, she can phone her parents and utter the words: 'Hello, Mum. I'm safe, but I can't come home for a few days. I have been detained under a detention order.'
"When the husband does return, his wife, under this law as framed at present, cannot tell him that his daughter has been detained. If she does tell him that the daughter has been detained, she is breaking this new law and is liable for five years in prison."

Liberal MP Petro Georgiou as quoted by Samantha Maiden in The Australian, November 11

"The $55 million spent by the Federal Government to advertise its industrial relations reforms was enough to train 600 sniffer dog teams to detect bombs and explosives in the fight against terrorism."

Glenn Milne in the The Sunday Telegraph, November 13

"Yesterday's dramatic raids do nothing to explain the need for the 137 pages of the Anti-Terrorism Bill (no. 2) 2005, and its 116-page explanatory memorandum, that Howard has put before the Federal Parliament.
"If anything, yesterday's arrests seem to illustrate that the existing laws are entirely adequate to allow pre-emptive action against a potential terrorist attack. If the authorities can move effectively to head off an attack under present laws, why do we need the draconian new measures of secret preventive detention and control orders?"

Peter Hartcher in the Sydney Morning Herald, November 9

"We're moving down that path."

Law Council of Australia president John North to the Ten Network about progress towards a police state, as quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald, November 4

"I believe there's been a change in the nature of politics worldwide, and a change in the nature of much of Australia. We're much less master of our own destiny than we used to be. I believe Australia has become, or been led to be, a fearful nation. I am really enormously concerned at recent laws that have been introduced, and I suspect that, in 50 years' time, this will be regarded as a watershed in Australian democracy, in Australian freedom.

"It will be regarded not as a time when we took an important step to liberation and to the preservation of the basic liberties, which we thought we could all take for granted, [but] a time when we took a very significant step back to a darker past. I believe that's what this particular period will be remembered for."

Malcolm Fraser on the 7.30 Report, November 10

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Last Modified: 17 Nov 2005