The Null Device

"Draconian but necessary"

Australia passes new terror laws, which will give the government the power to hold "terror suspects" without charge for 14 days and track them for up to a year. Given the Australian government's record, "terror suspects" presumably include Greenpeace banner-raisers, refugee advocates and anybody who has ever attended a demonstration or voiced an opinion critical of US foreign policy, at the government's discretion.

There are 3 comments on ""Draconian but necessary"":

Posted by: tony http://www.tamesapien.com/weblog/ Tue Sep 27 13:49:59 2005

Kill Howard. He is an infidel (That should test the new laws out).

Posted by: acb http://dev.null.org/ Tue Sep 27 20:02:00 2005

It's not the "right" to call for assassinations I'm worried about; it's the right to peaceful protest and legitimate dissent. The government of the day and its bureaucracy have shown contempt for such liberal niceties, and, sadly, Australia (being a former penal colony and imperial military outpost) does not have a robust tradition of civil liberties (witness the way how many officials, from police officers on the ground to the highest levels of government, will quite happily twist the rules to harass or neutralise those they disapprove of).

Posted by: Tony http://www.tamesapien.com/weblog/ Fri Sep 30 03:38:49 2005

I couldn't agree more. Why should what anybody says be considered a threat? It's when an individual tries to DO what they say (ie. commit a violent act) that they're legitimately breaking the law. Pre-emption. It's the scourge of the beginning of the 21st century.