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

When a policeman is murdered, there's a rush to capture the culprit. That's what happened when the Assistant Commissioner of the AFP, Colin Winchester, was shot in the head in his own suburban street in Canberra 23 years ago. But was there too much rush, is the wrong man in jail? asks CLA member Howard Carew.

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Dear Editor: your report (Bikie laws blow to club freedom) by Natasha Boddy. I support the veteran motorcycle club of WA joining a campaign against the proposed anti-bikie laws currently being debated in State Parliament. The laws go against the spirit of the Australian Constitution, which gives us all right of association.

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Editor, The West Australian: I respond to your report “Extradition appeal fails” by Belle Taylor. Since 2004 Mr Vincent T. O’Donoghue has fought being sent back to Ireland over an alleged $100,000 cheque scam (TWA Apr 3.) According to Mr O’Donoghue in a letter to me dated 4 Sept 2011, he is a 60-year-old retired lawyer from Dublin. He arrived in Australia in 2002 with his wife and one child, and now has three more children. Mr O’Donoghue has been fighting extradition back to Ireland since 2004, and was on bail for over five years without breach. In April 2009 he was found eligible for extradition, his bail was cancelled and no consideration was given to his wife and four children, and has been in custody in Hakea prison ever since.

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The drug "war" is yet another example of hyperbolic rhetoric where political and law enforcement public relations spin has replaced practical analysis and fiscal common sense. When 'the powers-that-be' realise that the basis for tackling drugs should be economic savings to the nation – with improved health and crime prevention benefits as a by-product – we might start to get somewhere, Bill Bush writes.

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New criminal laws are taking Australia significantly further down a path where citizens' lives are administered by a centralised database accessed by police and a security elite, CLA's CEO Bill Rowlings has told a parliamentary committee. Increasingly intrusive legislation is stripping away layers of personal privacy. It is time for a major national inquiry, CLA believes...the one proposed in our Australia Day letter to the Prime Minister.

Read CLA's Opening Statement and Submission »...

Mark Summerfield, a patent attorney, analyses the current UK alleged piracy/copyright extradition case with major international ramifications. As well, there's links to the NYT coverage of proposed new US laws which are even more draconian, and to an SMH story of the real-life experience of an Australian extradited and jailed in the US for a similar 'offence'.

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