Will you Cross The Floor, Senator?

An eery déja-vue

Four years ago many Australians experienced a spine-chilling experience whenever they turned on the television. The then Immigration Minister Phillip Ruddock, who now invariably gets drawn by cartoonists with a cold-blue facial skin tone, took every opportunity he could to embark on an agressive media-campaign, defending the indefensible in relation to "unannounced" asylum seekers arriving on our shores seeking asylum. Ruddock was Howard's chief defender of, if need be, a lifelong jailing of innocent men, women and children, who came to Australia unannounced by boat, just like tens of thousands of people have done for centuries, and they used their International right under the UN Refugee Convention and the International Declaration of Human Rights to do so.

Now once again, this time as the Attorney-General, Ruddock is defending the indefensible of the Anti-Terrorism Bill 2005, of its secrecy provisions - where even parents of those who are "snapped up" by ASIO on "suspicion only" can be jailed up to five years for telling their spouses or family members of this "ASIO disappearance" of their son or daughter; Ruddock does the media work also for the medieval "Sedition Laws" included in the legislation.

A window of opportunity

Surprisingly, an unexpected window of opportunity has appeared - small, but significant. While on Thursday November 10 (2005) Parliament was planning to rush these laws through, delays caused by the (equally draconian) Industrial Regulations Bills postposed the debate and the voting for the Terrorlaws in the lower house.

Included in this page on our website is a list of about a dozen Liberal and National MP's and Senators who have since the 2001 TAMPA legislation shown increasing concerns for how asylum policies have created disastrous policies and a deleterious effect on the "recipients" of these policies - and several of them have expressed serious concerns with the proposed anti-terrorism legislation, and its undermining of internationally agreed conventions - including the "sedition laws" which in principle enable a complete shut-down of dissenting voices expressing criticism with the Howard government.

The only choice for us left is to urge these MPs and Senators to cross the floor of Parliament and with this act of dissent vote down the legislation.

We have just a little more than one working week to contact these MPs and Senators, asking them to oppose the passing of this legislation that has no place in a democracy. Before 28 November we'll need to write or fax them and follow this up with a phone call. The phone call needs to include a check where you can urgently reach this MP right now: at their electorate office or in their Parliament House office.

• Write to your MP or Senator: Will you Cross The Floor, Senator? - You can use this sample letter as a guide for your action or draft your own letter. This sample letter needs to be sent to your local MP and State Senator, especially if this MP is a Coalition MP or Senator. (WORD document 22 Kb)

Condemn Terror - not our Human Rights

Sample letter to Members of Parliament or Senators

Dear (Name of MP or Senator),

I wish to lodge my opposition and concerns over the counter-terrorism laws currently being considered by both federal and state Governments. These laws remove important democratic rights and, in my view, constitute a surrender in the "war on terrorism". I condemn terror, but I also condemn these laws that compromise our basic human rights and our democracy.

I am opposed to these Terror Laws because:

1. Terrorism should be addressed using existing criminal law. Terrorism and the perpetration of violence is already a criminal offense. These new laws are unnecessary and dangerous.
2. The proposed laws are unconstitutional and bypass our existing judiciary system. The Prime Minister required State Premiers to agree to pass and enforce the laws at a state level in order to avoid a constitutional challenge in the High Court.
3. These draconian laws will provide unreasonably harsh powers to state police enabling them to secretly detain people without charge, covertly search private property without warrants, and shoot and kill suspects who have not been charged with a crime.
4. Secret detention without charge and house arrest violate basic international human rights and are untenable in a fair democracy. These are features of dictatorial power and fascism, and are easily abused by governments and secret police agencies.
5. The expanded definition of sedition will make dissent, or even humanitarian protest, a criminal offense. The difficulties in terms of defining terrorism (as seen in the 2002 legislation) make these powers easy to abuse. The subjective judgment of federal and state police will inevitably lead to racial profiling of the Muslim community.
6. Shoot to kill powers are unacceptable and may result in the killing of innocent civilians. The execution-style killing of an innocent Brazilian in London after the bombings was a tragedy that should have alerted the Australian Government to the extremism of this power.

As a loyal Australian citizen, I cannot support these laws. These laws compromise our rights to protest, to be presumed innocent until proven guilty, and to be charged in a court of law. I request you as my representative in the Government to represent my opposition to the Anti-Terrorism Bill 2005.

Yours sincerely,
Name and Address or Electorate

Members of the House of Representatives:

Liberal Party of Australia

Petro Georgiou MP, Member for Kooyong