It’s time for fresh start, a re-writing from scratch of all the dangerous-to-democracy terror laws produced over 14 years of ‘security’ being allowed to dominate over freedoms.
New data retention laws demonstrate clearly that MPs of both major parties have turned Australia into a surveillance state, CLA says. It is astonishing how quickly traditional rights and liberties of the individual have been discarded by politicians who understand only fear, their own personal fear of losing office. As the 100th anniversary of Anzac day arrives, it is apposite to question who in Australia now represents the tradition of the Diggers: it is not certainly MPs, who discard as unimportant individual freedoms while fruitlessly pursuing “perfect” safety. Perhaps today’s ‘diggers for freedom’ are those citizens who understand that living involves risk, who are prepared to fight for freedom from a snooping and prying government and its faceless, hidden spooks now able to listen to every word you speak on the phone, and read every word you write online.
Also in this issue…
- CLA Annual General Meeting concludes
- 2500 people control your private date
- Dutch ditch the data laws Australia has just brought in
- High Court reins in illegal police grab for funds
- Border police target races and nationalities
- ‘UN deserves respect’, says tortured rapporteur
- Greste delivers a media lesson
- State’s supreme court under extreme stress
- Rights of the child lasts into your 30s: court
- South Korean law to get out of the bedroom
- US police kill double the published numbers
- Kiwis spy on Pacific Island nations