Australian Minister 'leaks' draft of anti-terror bill

Saturday, October 15, 2005  Jon Stanhope, the Australian Capital Territory Chief Minister, has posted a confidential draft of the proposed Australian anti-terror bill to his website. Mr Stanhope says he hopes posting draft counter-terrorism laws on his website will open community debate about the issue and has stated that he will not comply with instructions from the Commonwealth to remove the document. The Australian Labor Party is backing his actions.

The main impetus for the action appears to be the short amount of time the Senate committee will have to debate the bill; just one day. In particular the Greens Senator Bob Brown has accused the Government of engineering the circumstances that only allow a one-day inquiry.

"It was an extraordinary premeditated attack on the Senate committee system and effectively made the committee system a farce," said Senator Brown. Others, including the Australian Law Council, have expressed concerns about the scope of the proposed bill.

Prime Minister John Howard has defended the process, saying "It's important for the security of Australia, it was unanimously agreed to by me with the eight Labor premiers and chief ministers, and we can't have any undue delay that the legislation will be exposed for public scrutiny and it will reflect that agreement."

Human Rights Watch and the International Federation of Journalists have also criticised the proposed laws, saying that they will impede press freedom, "severely threaten Australians’ civil liberties and violate international law".

Concerns with the Bill

The concern with the bill has centered on a number of areas:

• A so-called "shoot to kill" policy, especially in the wake of the shooting of an innocent Brazilian man in London.
• 14 day Preventative Detention Without Charge
• 5 years jail for revealing information about an ASIO detention
• Control Orders involving tracking devices and home detention which can be extended indefinitely
• The inclusion and definition of sedition, which in the bill may include "to bring the sovereign [i.e. the Queen] into hatred or contempt", or to "urge disaffection" with the Australian Government. Australian law does not protect freedom of speech, so this proposed law may effectively outlaw criticizing the Australian Government. It may also effectively outlaw some protests.
• The ability of judges to make decisions outside of the court system.
• 'Recklessly' providing funds to anyone who *might* be a terrorist is an offence, punishable by life imprisonment, even if they are not a terrorist

See also

• Australian Senate inquiry to new anti-terrorism laws to take place in one day

Sources

• The Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia. "A Bill for an Act to amend the law relating to terrorist acts, and for other purposes" — Australian Government, October 15, 2005

• "What's New fron the Home page of John Stanhope" — Australian Capital Territory Government, October 15, 2005

• "Labor backs anti-terror bill leak" — Australian Broadcasting Corporation News, October 15, 2005

• "Stanhope defies Govt over anti-terror bill leak" — Australian Broadcasting Corporation News, October 15, 2005

• "International Legal Concern Grows re Anti-terror Laws" — Law Council press release, October 15, 2005

• "Australia: Anti-Terrorism Proposal Threatens Civil Liberties" — Human Rights Watch, October 13, 2005

• "Australian anti-terror laws threaten press freedom" — IFEX, September 30, 2005

External links

See Wikipedia articles about historical parallels:

• USA PATRIOT Act
• Reichstag Fire Decree
• Sedition Act of 1918