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Australia terror laws Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
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AUSTRALIA: After Bali Attack, Government Wants More 'Anti-terror' Laws
Wed Oct 16, 9:52 AM ET
Bob Burton,Inter Press Service
CANBERRA, Oct 16 (IPS) - In the wake of public revulsion after the bombing in Indonesia's Bali island, Australian Prime Minister John Howard has alarmed human rights and opposition groups by announcing that he expects a review of anti-terrorism laws to be completed by early next week.
Government sources have revealed that the Howard administration's priorities now include legislation that gives a designated government minister the power to unilaterally ban organizations deemed to be associated with terrorism.
Constitutional lawyers and human rights groups are worried about the prospect of the further erosion of democratic rights in the name of 'anti-terrorism' legislation, which they say takes advantage of the anger, frustration and fear after the Bali blasts.
The attacks killed at least 187 people and injured more than 300. Australians are expected to have highest death toll. "To me it is the wrong focus to throw more law at the problem," Hilary Charlesworth, director of the Centre for International Law Australian National University, told a seminar on anti-terrorism legislation in Parliament House on Wednesday afternoon.
"To think that we are solving anything after Bali in passing more laws is like dancing on the deck of the Titanic," she argued.
"We need not and must not rush into hasty lawmaking. If we do I think there is a danger that in seeking to meet an external threat to our security and to our democratic freedoms that we may well introduce a new internal danger to our democracy," Professor George Williams of the Centre for Public Law University of New South Wales said at the seminar.
On Monday afternoon, Howard said that an emergency session of the National Security Committee of cabinet met to discuss its response to the Bali bombing.
"We decided to institute a review of the adequacy of domestic terrorist legislation. It is inevitable that, in the wake of what occurred in Bali over the weekend, the thoughts of Australians will turn to the potential vulnerability of our own soil, our own mainland, to a possible terrorist attack," he said.
"There is no point in ignoring that," Howard added.
The government-initiated review of terrorism legislation is expected to revive a series of legislative provisions rejected earlier this year by the parliament.
"We need to again assess the adequacy of our domestic law. I know it has been only recently reviewed, but further events have occurred and we are required as a matter of responsibility to almost 20 million Australians to do that," Howard said.
On Tuesday afternoon, special minister of state Eric Abetz re-introduced the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) Legislation Amendment (Terrorism) Bill into the Senate after it had been deferred earlier in the year due to widespread opposition, including within the government's own ranks.
The provisions of the bill, shaped after the September 11 attacks in the United States, propose to allow life sentences to be imposed on those directly or indirectly involved with "terrorist" organizations and allow "suspects" to be held without charge or access to a lawyer for potentially extended periods.
A parliamentary committee of inquiry into the ASIO legislation--dominated by government representatives--reported in June that the bill would "undermine key legal rights and erode the civil liberties that make Australia a leading democracy."
The legislation would enable ASIO to detain people it suspects of having information on terrorists incommunicado, without a right to a lawyer or contact with family and friends.
A spokesman for the Federation of Community Legal Centres, Damien Lawson, believes Howard's announcement is an opportunistic response to the Bali tragedy. "Howard is being somewhat opportunistic in using this tragedy to try and revisit some of the worst aspects of the anti-terrorism legislation the Australian public have clearly said 'no' to over the last year," Lawson said.
"The nature of the threat that the Bali attacks have underscored will not be addressed by the sort of changes they are proposing. What needs to be addressed is the political and social underpinnings of the conflict in Indonesia and conflict globally and look at why there is so much support for radical Islamist organizations," Lawson said.
Williams fears that there is a chance the Howard government will overreact to the Bali tragedy. "The ASIO bill might do more long term damage to the Australian democratic system than might be posed by terrorism itself," Williams said.
With the Australian Greens and the Australian Democrats both signaling their opposition to further amendments in the Senate, the fate of any government proposals will hinge on the position of the Opposition Labor Party.
The Labor Party leader, Simon Crean, wary of alienating a public horrified by the Bali bombing and supporters worried about the erosion of civil liberties, has equivocated.
"In the spirit of dealing with this situation and in the circumstances we face, I am prepared to look again at proposals the prime minister might want to put forward," he explained. "However, I believe it is critical in this that we target the terrorists and only the terrorists and that we do not expose innocent people to unnecessary scrutiny."
While the Labor Party is undecided, Lawson remains hopeful that the ASIO legislation will be defeated again. "I think it will be very difficult for the government to get the legislation through parliament," he said.
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