Australians ought to know better than to exaggerate ASIO's powers under the Anti-Terrorism Bill 2005, the Attorney-General, Philip Ruddock, believes. Why ought they? It is because of the Government's unnecessarily underhand method of bringing the bill forward that they have every right to fear what it will do to civil liberties. ... Mr Ruddock would do better to explain why the bill's draconian and oppressive powers are suddenly so necessary.
He will have to do better than the combination of scaremongering and vague reassurance that he and the Prime Minister have offered hitherto. "The laws that we are seeking to enact do not deal with curtailing vigorous free speech in Australia," Mr Ruddock says. Oh yes they do. The bill published by Mr Stanhope provides that outsiders may not even speak about whether, or why or how detainees suspected of terrorist offences are being held, or what they think of it. The penalty: five years' jail. That is a savage curb on free speech.
In this attack on basic rights, the Government appears to have only the premiers on its side. Commentators have put their attitude down to a scary briefing they received before they entered talks with the Commonwealth on the bill late last month. The cause may be rather less exciting: the state Labor governments have been terrified of looking soft on terrorism. They may regret the loss of liberties, but they fear being blamed for a terrorist incident far more.
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