Police terror:
NSW Police can now invade your home

You're at work, or buying groceries, or at the beach. You come 
home. There are a few items out of place but generally things are 
as you left them. What you do not know is that while you were out 
the police were going through your belongings. They secretly 
entered your home, photographed your correspondence, examined 
your most personal and intimate possessions, made copies of 
photographs and carried out forensic tests. This is the scenario 
under new legislation introduced by the NSW Carr Government.

Once this legislation becomes law it could be used in relation to 
almost all terrorist offences under Commonwealth legislation in 
the name of that ever-expanding umbrella labelled "anti-
terrorism".

Carr has once again broken new ground to violate people's rights 
on behalf of the Howard Government: the first was the federal-
state coordinated increase in powers given to the Federal Police, 
ASIO, ASIS and the military in the lead up the Sydney 2000 
Olympics.

The NSW police will not be obliged to inform you they have broken 
into your home until six months after the event. In addition, 
they will be able to bug your phone and computer and your home 
continuously for three months.

A judge will be able to issue a warrant if he or she "is 
satisfied there is a reasonable suspicion that relevant offence 
has been or is likely to be committed". The judge can also extend 
indefinitely the six-month period that the occupant of a searched 
premises is kept in the dark.

It will be easier for police to covertly obtain search warrants, 
which will also allow them to seize property, access computers, 
make copies of documents, operate electronic equipment and carry 
out forensic tests without revealing the purpose behind the 
investigation.

Carr was not coy about what he was doing, announcing, "These 
changes will give police the power to observe potential 
terrorists covertly over long periods and develop intelligence 
about their network".

Police will also have increased powers to spy on those locked in 
the NSW prison system: as Carr put it, to monitor "inmates in our 
prisons who may be involved with terrorist groups".

Prisoners targeted are to have their contact visits limited and 
their mail more closely scrutinised. But other questions remain: 
how monitoring in the prison system itself will be increased, and 
which category of prisoner will come under surveillance.

Presumably the hours prisoners are asleep and their visits to the 
toilet will no longer be considered private and personal 
activities.

And people are mistaken if they believe these laws won't affect 
them as long as they "don't do anything wrong". If you know 
anyone in the peace and environment movements, or anyone in a 
political organisation or party outside the mainstream; if you 
actively support your union or if you have protested against 
government policies — or are connected in any way with someone 
who has — you will potentially be caught up in the widening net 
of police powers.

Or maybe someone will simply, anonymously, email/phone/write to 
the police about what they have perceived as your "suspicious" 
behaviour, using the terrorist information hotlines set up by the 
Federal Government.

Cameron Murphy, president of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, 
pointed out that NSW has the toughest anti-terror laws in the 
world. "There's no evidence these additional powers will assist 
in finding and prosecuting terrorists", Mr Murphy said.

In addition, the increased powers will "exponentially increase 
the risk of police corruption". He rejected as "rubbish" Carr's 
claim that the new laws would have helped police catch Willie 
Brigitte, who was arrested in Australia on terrorism charges.

"In the Brigitte matter, the federal agency was aware of it. And 
what did they do? They chose to deport him."

NSW Greens MP Lee Rhiannon accused Carr of using scare tactics to 
deflect attention from his government's mismanagement. "These 
laws will not make society safer — it's another massive over-
reaction by the Premier."

She said allowing police to conduct property searches without 
telling the occupants removes another fundamental legal right.