New anti-terrorism laws have been signalled in the immediate aftermath of the July 17 terrorist bombings in Jakarta.
Dale Mills
Every week it seems as if a new law in NSW is passed which rolls back civil liberties. This time it is “anti-bikie” gang laws which, despite assurances, can be used against any sort of organisation, including activist or pressure groups. Other states have said they may copy the laws.
New laws have been passed in the NSW parliament that allow police to conduct secret searches of peoples homes, including the examination of computers. The new laws build on anti-terrorism legislation, but the new powers are for crimes as minor as growing a few cannabis plants.
NSW police have entered an out-of-court settlement with anti-war activist Paddy Gibson after he sued them for wrongful arrest during the APEC protests in Sydney in September 2007.
Newspaper articles sometimes tell so much of the truth that they prompt raids by the Australian Federal Police.
Information released under freedom of information (FOI) laws shows that NSW Police is keeping detailed documentation about numerous groups and individuals on the political left. Police intelligence assessments have targeted a variety groups, including Mutiny and Greenpeace.
A Sydney protest to mark the International Day Against Homophobia was held outside Gloria Jeans cafe in King Street, Newtown. Gloria Jeans Coffee sponsors activities by the Hillsong Church, which has been criticised for its homophobic positions. The
As the British parliament is discussing proposals to extend its anti-terrorism laws even further, existing anti-terrorism laws have been used to conduct surveillance on a family wrongly suspected of lying on a school application form.
Aboriginal legal aid services are to have their funding cut for the 13th year in a row, despite an election promise by the ALP that a federal Labor government would increase their funding, Trevor Christian, the director of the NSW/ACT Aboriginal Legal Aid Service, told the March 31 Sydney Morning Herald.
The profit-driven, multi-billion-dollar treatment of depression has been exposed as little less than a fraud. The selective publication of trials has meant that large corporations have been able to make misleading claims for their drugs.
Laws that curtailed civil liberties during the extraordinary and temporary conditions of the APEC protests last year in Sydney are likely to be made permanent, according to the March 12 Sydney Morning Herald.
Rendition
Directed by Gavin Hood
Written by Kelley Sane
With Jake Gyllenhaal, Reese Witherspoon, Alan Arkin & Meryl Streep
Directed by Gavin Hood
Written by Kelley Sane
With Jake Gyllenhaal, Reese Witherspoon, Alan Arkin & Meryl Streep
Charges against Izhar Ul-Haque have been dropped after a judge found on November 12 that ASIO officers had deliberately committed the offences of false imprisonment and kidnapping. This comes after a series of abusive charges against several people, with a senior police officer saying that police were instructed to charge as many people as possible to test the limits of new terrorism legislation.
Mission accomplished!, boasted NSW Premier Morris Iemma at the end of one of the most aggressive policing operations in Australia for many years. The last public official to use that phrase was US President George Bush, who had just invaded Iraq. Did Iemma mean to link the thousands of protesters in Sydney with the enemy population of Iraq?
The September 1 Daily Telegraph published the names and photographs of all but two of the 29 people who have been put on the NSW police commissioners list of people to be excluded from much of the Sydney CBD during the APEC summit, and who will even be banned from flying into or out of Sydney airport.
A group of 30 lawyers and law students have established a group to film police behaviour during protests against the September Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit to ensure that the police do not use unnecessary violence or break the law.
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