BY JIM MCILROY

BRISBANE — The government's so-called “anti-terrorism bill” will massively strengthen the powers of the Australian security Intelligence Agency (ASIO), Ross Daniels, Amnesty International activist and lecturer at Queensland University of Technology, told a City Hall public meeting attended by more than 120 people on February 19.

Daniels joined other speakers at the public meeting, sponsored by Rally for Peace and other organisations, in condemning the new bill, which may come before federal parliament shortly.

Jenny Hocking, head of the National Institute for Australian Studies at Monash University in Melbourne, slammed provisions of the new bill, which include 48 hours' detention without legal representation. This entails a change in ASIO activities from “intelligence surveillance” to “political surveillance”, and perhaps the beginning of a “new McCarthyism”. She criticised the ALP for failing to clearly oppose the bill from the start.

Lawyer Terry Fisher reminded the audience of the role of ASIO and other spy agencies play in assisting repressive governments such as in Indonesia. Fisher also condemned the new legislation's potential to “target anti-globalisation or anti-capitalist groups.”

Chairperson Karen Fletcher emphasised the need to build a broad movement to oppose these new repressive laws, and urged the audience to become involved in the protests at Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Coolum on March 2.

From Green Left Weekly, February 27, 2002.
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