Sydney Morning Herald: Last-minute jitters to dilute terror bill

[highplainsdem]

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/lastminute-jitters-to-dilute-terror-bill/2005/10/30/1130607152193.html


Last-minute jitters to dilute terror bill

By Mark Metherell, Mike Seccombe Tom Allard and Andrew Clennell
October 31, 2005


A de facto alliance of Liberal Party moderates, state premiers and Labor's left wing appears set to delay and water down the Federal Government's proposed anti-terrorism laws.

While the Prime Minister, John Howard, remained resolute yesterday that he would present the legislation largely as proposed to Parliament within days, growing cross-party unease suggests that his planned legislative blitz is unravelling.

With the Government expecting states' responses to the legislation by tomorrow, the Queensland Premier, Peter Beattie, said "there needs to be some flexibility about time", including concerns about judicial oversight of control orders - placing suspects under house arrest.

The ACT Chief Minister, Jon Stanhope, is also maintaining his right to withdraw his support for the laws, saying they may be inconsistent with the ACT Bill of Rights.

<snip>

God, I hope they can dilute this, if not derail it completely. This is horrifying legislation Howard's trying to drive through the Australian Parliament.

I saw a really strong editorial against the legislation earlier today, too -- I think it was also from the Morning Herald. I'll try to find that and add the link to this message.


Editing after finding it. I think it's okay to add a link to and quotes from an editorial to a message about an LBN story:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/editorial/too-much-haste-on-terrorism-bill/2005/10/30/1130607146347.html


Editorial

Too much haste on terrorism bill
October 31, 2005


The Prime Minister wanted to introduce his anti-terrorism bill into Parliament tomorrow, but that deadline has slipped because the premiers have yet to agree. As long as the bill is law by Christmas, John Howard says, he is relaxed about when the premiers come to their decision. There will be no more time for MPs to debate the measures, though. That, apparently, is out of the question.

The Prime Minister may be relaxed, but the rest of the country should not be. It should be both alert and alarmed.

Parliament will see the bill this week. It will view for the first time legislation which represents a serious reduction of the ordinary democratic rights of all Australians on the day it must start to debate it. There is no time for a considered reading, no time for reflection. The Government fully expects the debate to be over, the law passed and Australians to have had their rights curtailed by Christmas. That does not mean the debate will be able to go from now till Christmas. There are a limited number of sitting days and a busy schedule of bills awaiting consideration, not least the equally revolutionary industrial relations changes. Legislation about which some of the most eminent legal minds in the country have expressed the gravest doubts, and which finds almost no other lawyers in support, is to be rammed through with a minimum of debate. Meanwhile, the Government is already hinting it knows whom it would like to lock up in secrecy under the preventive detention provisions. The arrogance is breathtaking.

<snip>

But the problem foreseen by Queensland is essentially one of constitutionality, of process. The problem with the bill is far more profound. As it stands, its provisions strike straight at the heart of ordinary democratic rights and freedoms. It gags public debate. It bans information. It empowers police to make people disappear and punishes anyone who talks about their disappearance. The Government has never explained why those draconian measures are necessary. It has never taken the Australian people into its confidence. The final contents of the bill, even now, are a secret. The Government prefers the tools of the propagandist: the scare, the talk of nameless threats, the hint of traitors in our midst. We must give up our freedoms, and quickly, for fear the bogeyman will get us. It is a base and cynical approach which puts a democratic country to shame.

<snip>

The last three sentences there could have been written about the Bush administration: "The Government prefers the tools of the propagandist: the scare, the talk of nameless threats, the hint of traitors in our midst. We must give up our freedoms, and quickly, for fear the bogeyman will get us. It is a base and cynical approach which puts a democratic country to shame."

If only more editorials in US papers were as blunt...

[foreigncorrespondent]

1. Yep!

This week is gonna be a bad week for us Aussies. Not only do we get this draconian laws introduced, but also the industrial relations reforms.

I reckon more than a few of us are going to be drowning our sorrows this week!