President Obama began his reign as the hope of the civil liberties movement, but he ends a four-year term with a worse record than the President Bush he followed. Obama's remorseless assault on basic rights in America, Bernard Keane says, sets the tone for continuing loss of liberties and freedoms in Australia and globally as drone kills, loss of free speech and mass surveillance become 'normalised'.

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Do you think Australians have less freedom, less democracy, than 10 years ago when the planes crashed into New York's Twin Towers? Have terrorists changed the way Australians live? PM Julia Gillard said those questions were how we should test our decade-long, multi-billion response to terrorism. CLA asked the PM to set up a public inquiry to get the answers to her own questions...but she has declined to do so. They're important questions: what do you think?

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A father, who acknowledges his failings up front, wonders why Australia's most childish government agency continues to be commercially naïve while exercising unbridled power over individuals without legal charge, hearing or conviction. Keith Bettison tells his story…

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In relation to anti-assocation laws in WA and other states: if the proposed clauses are made into law, then maybe the Catholic Church could be considered for the first case – doesn't the criminal activity of some of their clergy potentially put the church in the class of organization as defined in the proposed legislation?

Or is this proposed legislation only for people/organizations the government or police want to act against for their own reasons, or for political advantage?

Who is brave enough to promote such an alternate view, and propose that the state take action against the church (now I know how the Jews felt, and understand what Niemoller said).
– John Black, Melbourne

Anti-terorrism laws, it seems, worry government more in prospect than reality. Passed in haste, with assurances about reviews later, these abusive laws have received no scrutiny as promised. Now even the idea of review has slipped into limbo, off the COAG agenda, Bernard Keane reports.

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"Laws without morals are useless" is the motto of a prestigious US university but not, it would seem, a guide for the Australian Governmnent in High Court litigation against the land and property rights of Aborigines. Barrister Ernst Willheim argues that the government should include human rights and non-discrimination principles in its Legal Services Directions so that a commitment to morality ensures just terms among justice for all Australians.

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Noel McLaughlin (Letters 3 April 2012 Canberra Times) misrepresents (columnist) Jack Waterford’s position on the AFP. Jack was not criticising the personal bravery of individuals. Rather, what I understood him to be saying is that the AFP have been encouraged, both by sweeping anti-terrorism legislation, and the enthusiastic and uncritical support of a previous Attorney-General, to use their authority and resources inappropriately in a ‘win at all costs’ way. Little consideration seems to have been given to ensuring that those charged with enforcing the law, do so in accordance with what the law actually says, and not what they think it says.

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