The Rudd government pans to set up a secret list of people suspected only of arson, and to possibly restrain, detain or put suspects under active surveillance for three months every year. The proposals , which represent a new low for civil liberties in Australia, involve creating a secret central database, then allowing local authorities (not judges or magistrates) to decide on “intervention strategies”.
Arson database: ‘convicting’ people on suspicion only
The Rudd Government plans to set up a “centralised national database of … suspected arsonists” which effectively convicts people without trial and could allow them to be locked up for three or more months each year without a hearing.
The proposal was announced in a joint media release by Attorney-General Robert McClelland and Minister for Home Affairs Brendan O’Connor on 3 May 2010.
These two men, supposedly responsible for “justice” in Australian society, appear to have no qualms in issuing these words:
…establishing a centralized national database of convicted and suspected arsonists…” (underlining added, here and below)
“A centralised national database of arsonists will provide local authorities with access to up-to-date information on arsonists which may be used to direct intervention strategies at times of high risk.”
What these words mean is:
- an Australian citizen can be placed on a secret government database if under suspicion only;
- at times of high risk – at least three months each year for arson – anyone on the secret list can be locked up, restrained or kept under active surveillance under “intervention strategies”; and
- the people with access to this list, who can surveil, restrain or detain Australians for three months of every year, on suspicion only, are not judges or magistrates or even police…just ‘local authorities’.
Even for a government which has turned Australia into more of a police state than existed under former PM John Howard, this latest move is excessive in the extreme.
CLA would like the two Ministers to explain:
- what safeguards will be put in place:
- how people who are suspected only of arson will be made aware that their names have been placed on a ‘secret list, and:
- how people suspected can possibly – ever – clear their names totally from the list if, in fact, they have been put on the list in error, or maliciously.
It is well past time that the federal government stopped bringing in draconian systems without consulting the public, including testing all interventions involving secrecy in any form with civil liberties and human rights advocates before deciding to go ahead.
Currently, the only input going into the A-G’s Ministries is from police, security, spy and, in this case, fire authorities, as well as departmental public servants: there is no balanced input whatsoever from the general community.
The A-G’s Ministry – McClelland and O’Connor – have become captives of the uniformed and uninformed hard right of the bureaucratic spectrum, which represents a tiny slice of Australian society.
Here (below) is the arson announcement in full. Note the weasel way it hides, eight sentences down, that it will strip the traditional legal protections from Australian citizens by establishing a “database of suspected arsonists”. Even further down, it proposes un-named “intervention strategies”.
These two men – and this government – have lost all sense of proportion when it comes to balancing community concern with the traditional freedoms and individual rights of citizens.
If they are permitted to identify suspected arsonists on a central database, and to potentially lock them away for three or more months of the year on suspicion, it will not be long before they identify suspected dissidents, and lock them away for six months before a federal election.
When you first lock people up on suspicion only, you are on a slippery slope. When people end up on a centralized surveillance database on suspicion only, the society is on a slippery slope.
Who – what group – will be next on the McClelland-O’Connon-Rudd hitlist?
MEDIA RELEASE
2010 National Bushfire Arson FORUM – 3 May 2010
Attorney-General, Robert McClelland, and Minister for Home Affairs, Brendan O’Connor, today announced new initiatives to combat deliberately lit fires as part of the second annual ‘National Forum for the Prevention of Bushfire Arson’.
The Attorney-General established the Forum in 2009 to promote more effective and collaborative means of preventing and deterring bushfire arson. Today’s meeting brought together more than 40 police, fire agency officers, and arson specialists from around the country.
Arson is a major threat to the Australian community, with up to half of all bushfires being deliberately lit or starting in suspicious circumstances. In addition to the massive human toll that fires can take, it is estimated that arson in all its forms costs the Australian community approximately $1.6 billion each year.
The key to reducing and preventing bushfire arson is maximising cooperation between fire agencies, police, social services, the criminal justice system and all levels of Government.
The Rudd Government today announced a number of important and practical initiatives to promote national collaboration in combating bushfire arson, including:
- establishing a centralised national database of convicted and suspected arsonists;
- investing in the development of a ‘Bushfire Arson Investigation Course’ to build the expertise of arson investigators across the country; and
- launching a ‘Bushfire Arson Prevention Manual’, developed by the Australian Institute of Criminology, to help local communities develop strategies to prevent arson.
A centralised national database of arsonists will provide local authorities with access to up-to-date information on arsonists which may be used to direct intervention strategies at times of high risk.
The Bushfire Arson Prevention Manual will also become an important reference used by local organisations, fire agencies and the police, when developing community based bushfire and arson prevention strategies.
Today’s Forum demonstrates the ongoing commitment of Commonwealth, State and Territory Governments to work together to prevent and deter arson through a coordinated and nationally agreed framework.