Another sad week for freedom in this country. All of our political leaders contrived to enact new "anti-terror"legislation that hits at some of the most fundamental legal traditions, such as the presumption of innocence. Another gem is the right of the authorities to arrest any person suspected of anything(presumably) to do with terrorism and to detain such persons for up to 12 days without charge. As I've said before, I take a dim view of any additional powers placed in the hands of the police or the secret services, never mind their high-minded justifications. Their dismal track records suggest that further abuses of power will be forthcoming.
I would have expected this kind of legislation from a government as mendacious as John Howard's, but the connivance of the state Labor premiers is doubling disturbing. Even the Federal Opposition leader, Kim Beazley (normally a man for whom I have a lot of time), seems to be involved in a strange bidding war to be the toughest bastard on the block. Could he really have proposed a strategy to 'lock down' entire suburbs in order to extract the so-called terrorist few? Well apparently yes.
Are we living in post-enlightenment age? Does the battle of those great thinkers have to be fought all over again? If combatting terrorism (whatever that multi-headed thing might be) involves rolling back the very freedoms that make democracy more attractive than the competition, then how far can societies go before they cease to be democratic?
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