Kill Terror Bill No. 2
Latest anti-democratic laws
Under the guise of anti-terrorism, the Howard Government's latest batch of reactionary laws were introduced in Parliament on June 18. The Anti-Terrorism Bill (No. 2) makes a number of amendments, including the introduction of a new offence of associating with a person linked with a terrorist organisation. It also gives authorities the power to prevent people from leaving Australia even before a warrant has been issued against them, as well as giving ASIO the power to seize Australian and foreign passports from suspects. The ALP has not made any public comment as to whether or not it will support the Bill. However, Greens Senator Kerry Nettle has said that she will push for the Bill to be referred to a Senate Inquiry. The legislation adds to the growing arsenal of police state laws the government can use to crack down on democratic rights and civil liberties. The Bill proposes to make the following amendments: 1 New offence: Associating with Terrorist Organisations * A person commits an offence if she/he intentionally associates with a person who is a member of, or who promotes or directs the activities of a terrorist organisation, in order to provide support to help it expand or continue to exist, and the (second) person knows that the organisation is a terrorist organisation. * "Association" means meeting or communication with the other person. Communication includes all modern forms of communication. The Bill provides for the following defences to the offence, but the evidentiary burden is on the defendant — the onus of proof is reversed: # the association is with a close family member, and the communication relates only to a matter that could reasonably be regarded (taking into account the person's cultural background) as a matter of family or domestic concern; # the association is at a place used for public religious worship and takes place in the course of practising a religion; # the association is only for the purpose of providing humanitarian aid; # the association is for providing legal advice or legal representation. This means that a person could end up in jail for doing nothing more than phoning someone twice, yet later be found innocent. 2 ASIO Act * It proposes to give ASIO the power to demand a person to surrender his or her Australian and foreign passport(s) if she/he is subject to a request for a questioning warrant. This means that even before the Minister has consented to issuing the warrant, ASIO can stop the person from leaving this country. * It will be an offence to fail to comply with a demand for the surrender of the person's passports. This adds to ASIO's already considerable and dangerous police state powers. Such powers are not required by an intelligence- gathering agency. 3 Passports Act * At the moment, if a person has a cancelled Australian passport, he or she can still leave Australia on a foreign passport. The new laws will allow "enforcement officers" to get an order to seize foreign passports of suspects of serious offences or harmful conduct, even if the person did not use the foreign passport to enter Australia. This is to make sure they are prevented from leaving Australia on a foreign travel passport. 4 Transfer of prisoners The Bill proposes to give to the Attorney General the power to make an order to transfer (or return) a prisoner (convicted or remand) to another State if the Attorney General "reasonably believes" that it is necessary in the interests of security. He can also make an order for transfer (or return) of a prisoner to another State to appear in court proceedings. The Bill provides that the decisions of the Attorney General under the amendments are excluded from the Administrative Decisions (Judicial Review) Act, which means that they will not be subject to judicial review. 5 Forensic procedures The Bill seeks to broaden the Crimes Act to facilitate effective disaster victim identification if a mass casualty incident occurred in Australia. It allows investigators access to the National Criminal Investigation DNA Database, the transfer of DNA information between federal government and the states, the matching of DNA profiles, and disclosure of the results of those matchings. This Kill Bill No. 2, as with its forerunner, will do nothing to tackle terrorism or increase security. The Bill seeks to further rob the Australian people of fundamental democratic rights and put in place a fascistic regime based on terror and suppression of all opposing views to the neo-conservatives that govern today. Act now A Senate Committee is inquiring into the Bill. It has given the public two weeks to respond!! Submissions are due in by July 8 — an impossible deadline to meet. This should not deter anyone making a late submission, no matter how short, to express strong opposition to the Bill and writing to your local MP and Senators. If you have access to the internet, you can download a submission from the website: http://www.civilrightsnetwork.org Submissions should be sent to: The Secretariat Senate Legal and Consitutional Committee Room S1.61, Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600 Fax:02 6277 5794. E-mail:legcon.sen@aph.gov.au* * * Acknowledgements: Agnes Chong, Australian Muslim Civil Rights Advocacy Network for material used in this article.