Peg Putt MHA
Tasmanian Greens Opposition Leader
Monday, 17 OCTOBER 2005CALL FOR TASMANIAN LABOR GOVERNMENT TO WITHDRAW SUPPORT FOR HOWARD’S TERROR LAWS
Or Face Pressure in ParliamentThe Tasmanian Greens today called on the Premier and his Cabinet to withdraw their support for Howard’s Terror Laws after public exposure of the Bill showed it attacks fundamental freedoms, threatening civil liberties and violating international law.
Greens Opposition Leader Peg Putt MHA vowed to pressure Labor when Parliament resumes tomorrow over the danger such laws would inflict on out society, including under mining our democracy.Ms Putt also wants the Premier to outline his proposed timetable: for introduction of the Bill, for when debate would occur, and what opportunity for public consultation (if any) will be made available for Tasmanians, should the Lennon government decide to proceed with the Terror Laws.
“Public release of Howard’s proposed Terror Laws show they attack our fundamental freedoms and violate international law and the Greens are calling on Paul Lennon and his cabinet to withdraw their support: Ms Putt said.
“We will pressure Labor over the dangers these laws would inflict and the way they will undermine democracy if Cabinet will not back off.“ Of particular concern are the preventative detention provisions and the introduction of control orders which can massively impact peoples’ lives without them having even committed an offence.”
“The clamp down on freedom of speech is also of major concern, already prompting a backbench revolt in Canberra.”
“If Lennon is determined to keep to his Faustian bargain with Howard then he must outline when he will introduce the Bill to the Tasmanian Parliament and whether he will allow a proper public consultation, or will he fail on this like Howard has?”“We fear that the Bill will be introduced and debated before there is an adequate opportunity for public feedback,” Ms Putt concluded.
Michelle Grattan, The Age:
HERE: Deflating terror’s bubble
Paul Storr
October 18, 2005 at 15:42
MEDIA RELEASE;
from Paul Storr, Tasmanian Council for Civil Liberties
The TCCL commends John Stanhope, the ACT Chief Minister for his public spirited action in allowing Australians to see what The Howard goverment is proposing to do to our democracy.
The TCCL regrets that Paul Lennon, Premier of Tasmania, has not acted in the same open fashion, and has even criticised Mr, Stanhope for his fundamentally decent action.
Mr. Lennon and Mr. Howard, the Walrus and the Carpenter, are in tandem in their merry dance :- the lurch to the right, but the Australian public are the oysters, and it is their rights that are being eaten.
Indeed the Australian political landscape is beginning to resemble that of the Weimar Republic of pre WW2 Germany.
This is not only happening in the security area: this week for example the Tasmanian Parliament is set to pass the Misuse of Drugs Ammendment Bill, a move that removes all need for police to obtain search warrants from magistrates and reclassiifies a whole range of very minor drug users as dealers, thus exposing them to harsher legal penalties.
We are expecting more of the same.
Paul Storr, President of the Tasmanian Council for Civil Liberties
18/10/05
Leonard Colquhoun
November 15, 2005 at 13:29
A Victorian public transport commuter’s “best practice” recommendation re the threat of terrorism, as explained in a letter to The Age, Tues 15 Nov 05:
Our best defence
PLEASE, Peter Batchelor [Victorian Minister for Transport], don’t change anything about our public transport system, especially not before the Commonwealth Games. It’s Melbourne’s strongest line of defence in the war on terror. Unpredictable timetables, signal faults, train cancellations, trams stuck in traffic, buses that never come, failed connections, unco-operative ticket machines, trains too full to board, mechanical breakdowns, frustrating delays, feral inspectors. Add the sheer impossibility of a co-ordinated rendezvous or planned excursion, and the terrorists won’t have a hope.
Lance Lawton, Werribee (a western suburb of Melbourne)