On March 11, a new information kit, Be Informed: ASIO and Anti-Terrorism Laws, was launched at NSW parliament. Greens MLC Lee Rhiannon and Agnes Chong from the Australian Muslim Civil Rights Advocacy Network addressed the launch. Green Left Weekly's Simon Tayler spoke to the kit's primary researcher, Dale Mills.
The kit, produced by the Community Law Centre at the University of Technology, Sydney, aims to inform people about the draconian laws passed by the Coalition and Labor in federal parliament, which widened the powers of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) and
created a range of broadly defined "terrorist" offences.
According to Mills, who is a member of the Socialist Alliance, "Although the purpose of Be Informed as an information booklet is to prompt people to make written submissions to the parliamentary committee reviewing the ASIO legislation, such written submissions alone are unlikely to change the laws". Mills believes that "when ordinary people can read how abusive the laws are, there is an increased awareness of just how the laws can be used to victimise people" and that this will hopefully encourage people to campaign against the laws.
Mills also pointed out that "although Labor sometimes sounds progressive on some issues, often they are just as bad as, or worse than, the Coalition. For example, the Greens tried to pass an amendment to the legislation about indefinite detention. At the moment, ASIO can get a warrant from a government minister to allow someone to be detained for seven days, and as they're walking out the door they can be picked up for another seven days on another warrant."
"Labor claimed that wouldn't happen, so the Greens sponsored an amendment to clarify the position, but that amendment was defeated by a combined Coalition and Labor vote."
NSW Greens parliamentarian Lee Rhiannon pointed out at the launch that Labor Premier Bob Carr has also introduced "anti-terrorism" legislation in NSW. Mills explained that the Terrorism (Police Powers) Act, for example, allows a senior police officer to declare an "authorisation" to suspend civil liberties. "Under an 'authorisation', a senior police officer could say: "Cordon off East Sydney and search every man or woman of Middle Eastern appearance. Search their offices, their homes, and if they protest, use as much force as you need.' That would be perfectly legal."
Section 13 of the act says that such a decision cannot be challenged in any court or tribunal, "so here, Carr is giving powers to the police that the Coalition would probably like to do at a federal level, but can't because of constitutional restrictions".
According to Mills, those held under mandatory "question and detention" warrants, once released, "would not be able to speak about their ordeal for two years. If they leaked the information to a journalist, the journalist too could be jailed for two years if he or she even mentioned it to the newspaper's editor, let alone published it. And it would take the public up to a year to even know that anyone had been detained, as that information isn't required to be released anyway except in ASIO's annual report."
Mills explained that while "some critics of the ASIO laws say that there should be greater safeguards, such as a guarantee to legal advice during questioning, others say that the legislation should be abolished altogether. Before the legislation, there were already laws against planes being flown into tall buildings, letting off bombs and plotting with others to kill people. Why do we need new laws?"
The laws, said Mills, are really "to create definitions of 'terrorism' and other offences that are so wide that when the government has decided to charge someone, conviction and long terms of imprisonment are certain to follow. From a legal viewpoint, that sits very uncomfortably with traditional notions of the rule of law."
Further, Mills asks, "against whom could these laws be used where the traditional criminal laws are too 'weak'? The answer is anyone the government doesn't like." He pointed out that "the government doesn't like a lot of people, and in times of crisis — such as a Bali bombing or something similar — a lot of people could find themselves on the receiving end of an ASIO warrant".
"The purpose of the information kit is not to scare people. It's to encourage people to be informed and to ask why the laws exist in the first place."
Be Informed is available at <http://www.civilrightsnetwork.org> and at <http://www.amcran.org>.
From Green Left Weekly, March 16, 2005.
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