As the Australian Government gets ready to censor the internet, CLA is fighting back with ‘Action Email Cells’ – groups to take the fight to the government. (See Home page article, and lead story in newsletter).
Meanwhile the November newsletter also covers the annual reports of ASIO and the Australian Federal Police, who have notched up more than 1000 complaints against them in the past year, including 19 at the very serious end of the scale.
In major developments likely in November and beyond, Attorney-General Robert McClelland is signalling a change to terrorism offences, possibly including them as part of Australia’s normal criminal laws, as civil liberties and human rights bodies suggested from the outset. There’s news of the High Court’s condemning police ‘controlled’ operations, hope for an independent panel to review the 50-plus terror laws since 2001, and the prospect of a Do Not Export Data register to safeguard your credit card and personal information.
Some other items featuring in this month’s CLArion include:
- Police yo-yo orders to control children are like ‘walking the dog’;
- Secret agency ACC under fire from all sides;
- ASIO mushrooms…and sets up in private enterprise;
- Corrupt police cells infecting Victorian force: report;
- Bureaucratic bunfight emerges over whistleblowing;
- WA in danger of becoming a police state, says union;
- Tasmania’s A-G and Premier champion rights charter;
- CLA alerts Defence Minister to prisoner transfer doubts;
- UK DPP warns of ‘paraphernalia of paranoia’ over terrorists;
- DNA backlog continues to rise;
- 14 Asian countries still executing under death penalty;
- Make cannabis a regulated product, report to UN says; and
- Mandatory sentencing drives up costs.