What are the laws?

May 22, 2002
Issue 

2, 2002, Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism Bill 2002, Criminal Code Amendment (Suppression of Terrorist Bombings) Bill 2002, Kurdistan Workers Party, PKK, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC, ETA, National Liberation Army, ELN, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, UN Security Council, Border Security Legislation Amendment Bill 2002, Telecommunications Interception Legislation Amendment Bill 2002, Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Amendment Bill 2002, ASIO, ALISON DELLIT">

What are the laws?

BY ALISON DELLIT

The federal government's "anti-terrorism" package of legislation contains six bills. The first five are likely to come before parliament at the start of the next sitting in mid-June. The sixth bill is still under scrutiny by a parliamentary committee.

The Security Legislation Amendment Bill (Terrorism) No. 2, 2002.

This bill defines a "terrorist act" as an action or a threat of action "made with the intention of advancing a political, religious and ideological cause" and involving "serious harm" to a person or "serious damage to property" or which "endangers [another] person's life", "creates a serious risk to the health and safety of the public or a section of the public" or "seriously disrupts an electronic system".

An electronic system is defined broadly to include information systems, telecommunication systems, financial systems, systems used by or to deliver "essential government services or utilities" and transport systems.

"Lawful advocacy, protest and dissent" and "industrial action" are specifically excluded from the definition.

It also creates new "terrorist acts" offences: committing a terrorist act; providing or receiving training connected with terrorist acts, directing organisations that are "directly or indirectly" preparing terrorist acts, possessing "things" associated with "preparation, engagement or assistance in" a terrorist act, collecting or making documents connected with terrorist acts and doing any other act in preparation, or planning for terrorist acts.

All of these offences are punishable by life imprisonment. They are "strict liability" offences, which reverses the onus of proof from the accuser to the accused. So, for example, if a TAFE teacher was accused of training a terrorist, it would be up the teacher to prove that it wasn't reasonable to expect that the trainee was a terrorist.

The bill also allows the attorney-general to proscribe organisations, if "satisfied on reasonable grounds" that the organisation, or a member of the organisation, has committed terrorist acts (even if not convicted) or the organisation "has endangered [or is likely to] the security or integrity of the Commonwealth or another country". The attorney-general is under no obligation to tell the organisation, it is enough to publish an announcement in the government's gazette and a national newspaper.

The bill also creates strict liability offences for being a member of, directing the activities of, funding, training with or assisting a proscribed organisation, all punishable by 25 years imprisonment.

This bill tightens the definition of treason to include assisting anyone who is at war with Australia "whether or not war has been declared", or assisting anyone who is fighting the Australian Defence Forces. All treason offences are punishable by life imprisonment.

The Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism Bill 2002

This bill makes funding, or collecting funds for, terrorist acts a strict liability offence, punishable by life imprisonment. It also requires cash dealers to report any transactions they suspect may finance terrorist acts and allows for more comprehensive information sharing with overseas law enforcement agencies.

It strengthens legislation passed last year which enables the government to freeze the assets of organisations which have been placed the UN Security Council's counter-terrorism committee's list of "terrorist entities". It will make it an offence to give money or other assets to a proscribed organisation, upping the penalty to five years of imprisonment.

So far, the list includes the Basque group ETA, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN) of Colombia and many groups resisting the illegal Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

The Criminal Code Amendment (Suppression of Terrorist Bombings) Bill 2002

This bill gives effect to the international convention on terrorist bombings, making it punishable by life imprisonment to deliver or detonate an explosive or lethal device in a public place, in order to kill people or to cause "major economic loss".

The Border Security Legislation Amendment Bill 2002

This bill will give customs officers greater power to patrol airports and require airlines and shipping operators to provide them with more passenger information. It will also force the Australian Fisheries Authority to report on "suspicious" boats, and give customs officers powers of arrest.

The Telecommunications Interception Legislation Amendment Bill 2002

This fairly nasty piece of legislation will let government agencies examine private email, voice mail (and SMS messages) without obtaining an intercept warrant.

The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Amendment Bill 2002

This bill will allow ASIO, when investigating terrorism, to detain people who are more than 10 years old for 48-hours, denying them access to anyone outside of ASIO officials and police officers: no notification of their families or friends, no access to lawyers or to doctors. Those detained do not have to be suspected of terrorism themselves, they can be detained as long as ASIO suspects they hold information relevant to the investigation.

The warrant must be agreed to by the relevant federal minister, and then applied for in front of a federal magistrate or a member of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. The AAT is a government-appointed body with no tenure.

The AAT or a federal magistrate can renew the warrant for another 48-hours, and, after gaining the consent of the minister, subsequent renewals indefinitely.

The legislation also makes it an offence to "fail to give any information requested", to lie or to refuse to hand over any "thing" requested during interrogation. The penalty is five years imprisonment.

It also gives ASIO or the police the power to strip search detained people, after getting the approval of an AAT member by telephone or fax.

From Green Left Weekly, May 22, 2002.
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