New anti-terrorism laws have been signalled in the immediate aftermath of the July 17 terrorist bombings in Jakarta.
The details of the new laws have not been revealed, but the government has indicated it wants to make it an offence to incite violence against an individual on the basis of race, religion or nationality.
However, the incitement of violence against an individual for any reason can already be caught by several laws.
The July 21 announcement by Attorney-General Robert McClelland was made to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, rather than parliament. McClelland thus avoided any pesky questions from those few MPs opposed to any expansion of the terrorism legislation.
In an interview with the ABC Radio AM program, former Victorian Attorney-General Jim Kennan said existing powers were already too wide.
"I don't think there's examples that have been demonstrated here or overseas where the terrorists laws aren't strong enough, rather the concern is that in some cases like the [Mohamed] Haneef case, they have led to injustices," he said.
Kennan called for an independent body to review the terrorism laws, as exists in the UK.
In the same AM program, lawyer Robert Stary, who represented Melbourne man Jack Thomas who was charged with terrorism offences, said many of the existing laws should be repealed.
"For instance", said Stary, "preventative detention laws have never been used under the ASIO legislation ... and they should be repealed. The control order [legislation] should be repealed — it was unsuccessfully used against Jack Thomas and farcically used against David Hicks."
Stary said degrading civil liberties in Australia made it harder for Australia to counter international human rights abuses.
He cited a failed prosecution against Tamil activists in Melbourne for allegedly funding a terrorist organisation as an example of ham-fisted attempts to curtail civil liberties in Australia.
Stary suggested the prosecution represented a double attack on the embattled Tamil community, with the Sri Lankan government on one side and the Australian government fighting a rearguard action on the other.
The Attorney-General has invited "discussion and consultation" in the coming weeks as more details of the proposed laws are made public.
[Dale Mills is a Sydney-based lawyer.]