Dale Mills

“The Australian people now know less than they would have historically about what is happening in their society”, Chris Warren, secretary of the journalists’ union, told the April 26 Australian, following the release by the union of a report detailing how press freedom is becoming increasingly strained as a result of Washington and Canberra’s “war on terror”.
Bulldogs winger Hazem El Masri and lawyer Adam Houda were racially harassed on the night of April 12, according to the two men.
Sydney city council is preparing a vicious crackdown on the ability to distribute newspapers such as Green Left Weekly and leaflets advertising political rallies and events.
Following the trial of Tasers among Queensland’s Special Emergency Response Team, they are now being introduced to all duty police officers in the Brisbane and south-east police regions, according to a joint statement issued by Queensland police minister Judy Spence and Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson.
Emboldened by the current right-wing security environment, spy agencies are attempting to recruit at Australian universities.
Police from the NSW anti-terrorism unit joined Victorian police to raid the homes of political activists in Sydney as part of the fallout from protests against the G20 meeting in Melbourne in November. Four men were arrested and a fifth later surrendered to police.
Greens MP Lee Rhiannon slammed the police operation at the Big Day Out, saying that the use of sniffer dogs against recreational drug users had put people’s health in danger.
The October release of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation’s (ASIO) annual report reveals that it is concentrating in great detail on protest actions, even small ones.
NSW Greens MP Lee Rhiannon has called on the NSW Labor government to drop a current trial of taser stun guns after one of the weapons caused the death of a teenager in the United States on November 1. It is expected that the NSW government will announce before next March’s state election that stun guns will be given to 7000 NSW police on general duties.