A Shield or A Sword?
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There is a consensus among educated Australians that Preventive Detention is inimical to the democratic evolution of our country. Many are those who argue that given the standards of our time preventive detention is an unnecessary evil.
This group is made up mostly of community groups, academics and lawyers who sincerely subscribe to the belief that to resort to such a draconian law to safeguard not only their person but also, the country at large is itself dangerous. They argue passionately that the exigencies do not warrant such offensive and repressive Act. To this school of thought the Act would be a sword in the hand of a budding autocrat who wielded it ruthlessly and indiscriminately to stifle all genuine opposition.
In Australia there is freedom of expression and freedom of association. There are many media outlets and the government and the media giants have the morning, mid-day and evening news, as the governments mouth piece.
The media giants though not officially part of the government machinery; unabashedly and blatantly champion the cause of the government funded by government advertising. Given these attributes of democracy, one would not need to ask why the media giants never asked questions in relation to the illegality of the war on sovereign nations like Afghanistan and Iraq. Or who was responsible, and or what that inference would lead to down the track in terms of our national security. Especially if they could not win that illegal and degrading war or it could take years. Now those questions have been left unanswered. So to keep the terrible lie alive they need to restrict our liberty to combat their fear of reprisal which undermines the communities common laws, human rights, civil rights, democratic rights and their liberties at home or abroad.
The proposition that certitude leads to violence has its easy application in such dynamic environment and in a landscape swarming with political parties and some who are intent on justifying illegal and degrading war whilst living in a multicultural freer society. The easy application is ideologies, dogmatists and bullies--people who think that their rightness justified them in imposing on anyone who does not happen to subscribe to their particular ideology, dogma or notion of turf. Because their conviction of rightness is powerful enough and any resistance to it will be met sooner by force. When one gets profiled then persecution comes easy. Mamdouh Habib was kidnapped, persecution inexorably followed.
If Preventive Detention or Control Orders are enacted for dissent or suspected people the law will empower the government to detain anybody without trial. The law is renewable and represents indefinite detention and other waves of detention will follow unabated.
Yet there are no bombs being thrown any where in the country. If anything, it was only the 'smoking gun memo' and troops off to wage war that occasionally pervaded the atmosphere in Australia.
The opposition party has been bought and dissolved into extinction or used merely to sustain the notion of a liberal democracy. Well-paid losers!
In conclusion, there has been no bomb thrown thus, we don't need a shield to protect us. As a matter of fact, the government were culprits in the war and the opposition was complicit in not preventing the war and one needs to look there for the real answer in preventing violence in our community down the track.
In my opinion the sole objective of the governments Anti-Terrorism legislation is a diabolic weapon to stifle and strangulate the budding opposition because of the mounting frustration of the opponents to illegal and degrading war which, they declare is an adequate justification for engaging in bomb throwing and on that basis then one can be sure Howard is not a visionary but a nationalistic autocrat and it goes without saying.
Like all autocrats, Howard cannot tolerate any opposition.
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Propaganda Monster 30 October 05
Australia, Statutes at Large, Canberra, A.C.T., 2005.
SECTION 1: Whoever, when Australia wages an illegal war, shall willfully make or convey false reports or false statements with intent to pre-empt that illegal war, or promote the operation or success of the military or naval forces of Australia for that illegal war, or to promote the demise of its victims of that illegal war, or shall willfully make or convey false reports, or false statements of that illegal war, . . . or incite promote, loyalty, efficacy, or duty of that illegal war, in the military or naval forces of Australia, or shall willfully promote . . . the recruiting or enlistment service of Australia for that illegal war, or . . . shall willfully utter, print, write, or publish any loyalty, appraisal , appreciation, or validity of that illegal war, or language about that illegal war in the form that undermines the integrity of the community of Australia, or the Constitution of Australia, or the military or naval forces of Australia for that illegal war . . . or shall willfully not count the dead of any foreign victim of that illegal and degrading war, or shall willfully . . . urge, incite, or advocate increased production for that illegal war . . . or advocate, teach, defend, or suggest the doing of any of the acts or things in this section enumerated and whoever shall by word or act support or favor the cause of Australia with which Australia is at an illegal war with or by word or act does not oppose the illegal and degrading war of Australia therein, shall be punished by imprisonment of up to 7 years.
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The Howard Government wants to give police executing preventative detention orders the power to shoot to kill. This is shoot to kill madness.
State and territory leaders are starting to back away from these powers, but the Federal Government is refusing to back down. We have an important opportunity to stop these provisions before they even get to Parliament.
State and Territory leaders need to use their bargaining power to ensure shoot to kill powers do not apply to any of the state, territory or federal preventative detention provisions.
Click the link below to demand that your state and territory leaders tell Phillip Ruddock that they will not be part of any deal on preventative detention laws that include shoot to kill provisions at a state or federal level:
The power to shoot to kill is considered the last resort for police exercising their power to arrest suspects they reasonably believe have committed a crime. The Howard Government now wants to significantly extend this power.
The Howard Government wants police to also have this power when they are detaining someone under the authority of a preventative detention order, even though these orders can be issued against persons that the police do not believe are terrorists.
This is shoot to kill madness. The president of the NSW Law Society, John McIntyre, told ABC Radio that police would be able to obtain a preventative detention order "without a person being reasonably suspected of committing of an offence". According to Mr McIntyre;
"If the [police] are armed with one of these [orders] ... and if this person attempts to flee the arrest, he can be shot and fatally shot ... The police might knock on the door and [the person] might leg it out the back door without even being told why the police are there, and under these provisions they can be called on to stop and if they don't stop, they can be shot."
Three law professors from the Australian national university recently wrote that proposed shoot to kill powers "have echoes of the shoot to kill' policy in the United Kingdom, which lead to the fatal shooting by police of innocent commuter Jean Chalres De Menezes in July 2005."
Click the link to act now and demand this madness is rejected at a state and federal level:
http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/ShootToKillMadness
There's more information about the laws including links to expert legal analysis and media interviews on our blog.
Victory on the shoot to kill provisions is in sight. Stand by for ways you can counter other extreme measures in this legislation.
Thanks,
The GetUp Team
Ed: If you contact though GetUp I suggest you add your additional complaints about the whole draconian package and not just the Shoot to Kill part when you email your respective elected leader.
Ed. E-mail - to Morris Iemma
Restrictive laws are not In the National Interest. Preventive detention orders made, on the balance of probabilities, with the onus on the defendant to prove they no nothing is repugnant to common law. The penalty of an order for a period of 12 months and until further notice with restrictions of xxx, undermines common sense and general communication. The period can be extended, after the first 12-months lapses, this should ring 'alarm bells'.
Preventive detention has already been made in NSW and defeated by the High Court under the provisions of the Community Protection Act 1994. No one can predict the future.
On that basis the laws are flawed and draconian. Some people will be prevented from fundamental principals like communication and no longer be able to use Internet, phone, fax etc.
Dragging sedition into anti-terror legislation is draconian and people being sent to prison for speaking out is cheating our democracy. Rights I believe you should oppose.
Some people will be prevented from reporting on matters of importance because of their fears, but it is everyone's right to report. Preventing people from communicating with other people about what happened or the degree in relation to the circumstances is sinister. The community must report and there ought to be no restriction on their reporting.
People in a civilised society cannot just drop off the map. They could even be prevented from answering their mail? Out of sight out of mind! These laws smell of countering dissent.
But like fire, air, and water all communication belongs to the community and cannot be bought or sold. Otherwise personal expression, safety, consideration and education are also undermined. Human beings must share ideas otherwise people could end up making ill informed decisions.
Shoot to kill without a just defense is an illegal and degrading form of authority.
Isolation in AAA Supermax can also kill you in 14 days. Similarly to being placed from a very warm climate into a chilling experience, this is so damaging to the human psych. Those people may never recover from that experience. Clean skins who've never been to a prison being held with the 'worst of the worst' for the 'first time' is disturbing and 'distorting' the communities understanding of the difference between knowing 'right' from 'wrong'.
Domestic violence and general violence can ultimately lead to war and terrorism.
'The punishment is the crime for a world without violence'. That is the root of preventing domestic violence, wars and terrorism.
Shooting to kill is one thing and going to prison in AAA conditions is another and I implore you to think again and change your mind for the sake of the whole community.
You have been so lucky to have lived in a freer democracy until it has now come to your turn to make a decision for NSW. On that basis we don't think that you could possibly let your people down.
Being locked up in solitary can lead to a person feeling alienated and confinement can lead to a human beings premature death, just as a bullet in the head would kill you, so too can solitary confinement.
Thank you for your time.
Related:
SPEAKERS:
* Daryl Melham (ALP)
* Senator Kerry Nettle (Greens)
* Socialist Alliance
* Council for Civil Liberties
* Australian Muslim Civil Rights Network
* CFMEU
POLE POSTERS AND PDFs OF THE FLYER for Nov 5 are now available. Phone Jarvis on 9211 2600 or 0404 015 789 to find out moreÉ
RALLY PLANNING MEETINGS ARE HELD WEEKLY.
Next meeting:
7PM MONDAY OCTOBER 24,
Note different room location for this meeting:
Room 26 on LEVEL 27 of the UTS Tower, BROADWAY, SYDNEY
Info: 0401 900 690 or 0404 015 789
