ASIS UNCHAINED. The third raft of security legislation passed through the senate yesterday with little debate. It gives ASIS new powers to conduct operations in Iraq without approval from a government minister, and letting ASIS undertake operations against a class of Australian persons rather than against named individuals (an aside: how does that work?) On a week where everyone is talking about the non-accountability of police, the law also gives the AFP the power to issue control orders on people suspected of aiding or facilitating foreign fighters like those currently in Iraq and Syria. Control orders let police detain someone without charging them, a process the Australian Human Rights Commission describes as having the potential to impact on fundamental rights and freedoms including the rights to liberty, privacy, freedom of association, freedom of expression and freedom of movement and which I describe as barely legal, a breach of the fundamental principles of common law and with no evidence that they are effective to prevent the commission of crime. Whether or not you believe the threat of terrorism demands this sort of action, it is obvious that such powerful new measures warrant intense scrutiny from our lawmakers (as is normal when passing legislation). I am scared of terrorism. But I am more frightened by this video. We live in a country where the powerful are not held to account. George Brandis either couldnt, or didnt want to explain the effects of these new laws, and that is genuinely scary. https://m.youtube/watch?v=CBZyoUaWKzg
Posted on: Wed, 26 Nov 2014 22:49:54 +0000