13 November 2005 - The Anti-terrorism Bill 2005 should be of extreme concern to all Australians. Its extremist powers are being pushed and peddled by the Howard administration, but as is becoming abundantly clear, the laws are not needed, they do not safeguard anyone in Australia who may practice fierce dissent with the policies of the Howard government, and they do not safeguard those who criticise the Howard government, even if this is in writing or in the Performing or visual Arts. The fact that already an artist was requested to be prosecuted for treason against the State shows the level of concern we all should have with these laws.
IMAGE: Thanks to The Australian and Nicholson cartoons
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.
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