Citizens send an SOS for democracy : Melbourne Indymedia

A newly formed citizens' group has flagged the possibility of a campaign of civil disobedience to protest the Federal Government's new anti-terrorism legislation.

A meeting of SOS this week voted to invite US activist Scott Parkin, deported from Australia earlier this year for unknown reasons, to visit the Southern Highlands to teach non-violent methods of civil disobedience.

As anti-terror laws were pushed through the Senate on Tuesday night, about 100 people attended the Bowral meeting to voice fears about the effect of the laws on civil liberties and human rights.

The Anti-Terrorism Bill will allow police to detain terror suspects in secrecy for up to 14 days without charge, place suspects on control orders for up to 12 months and impose a seven-year jail term for sedition.

Called by Rural Australians for Refugees (Southern Highlands) and Amnesty International (Southern Highlands group, the meeting followed similar forums in Armidale, Bega and Foster.

SOS stands variously for "Silence Or Sedition", "Support Our Society" or "Security or Subjugation".

"We call it SOS and it's a call for help," said RAR co-founder Susan Varga.

"The body in distress is our society, it is our democracy and no-one can come to its assistance but its own people."

The meeting unanimously endorsed Australian Law Council advertisements opposing the laws, published in major newspapers last week.

The meeting also unanimously endorsed a proposal to work with the legal fraternity to develop an Australian Bill of Rights.

Other motions called on the Law Reform Committee and the Federal Government to review the effect of the legislation within a year and also for an education campaign targeting first-time voters.

Dr Joan Staples, a visiting fellow at the Faculty of Law at the University of New South Wales, told the meeting that the Federal Government had exploited the politics of fear for ten years, and young people had grown up not knowing another model of democracy.

"I feel there is a generation coming up who will not understand what we are losing," she said.

News laws threaten ancient rights

The Federal Government's anti-terror laws will repeal rights that date from the Magna Carta, NSW Council for Civil Liberties vice-president David Bernie told the SOS meeting on Tuesday.

"People who have not committed an offence or are not suspected of committing an offence can now be subjected to controls which are normally reserved for convicted criminals," said Mr Bernie.

"It's a major step away from the idea that when you are arrested, you must be arrested on reasonable suspicion that you've committed a breach of law, that you will be charged and have the opportunity of answering the charge against you. "

The anti-terror laws would allow terror suspects to be held without being informed of the charges against them and prevent them from notifying family members of their whereabouts.

"For the first time in Australian history, we will have secretive detention and it is a real tragedy," Mr Bernie said.

Mr Bernie described the sedition provisions as "ridiculous overkill", "anti-democratic" and "fundamentally wrong".

"The old (sedition) law was archaic and should be repealed, but it had at least some safeguards," he said.

"Under the new law, you can be convicted on an off-the-cuff remark made recklessly: you don't need to have the intention to be seditious."

New sedition laws were intended not to prevent terrorism but to stifle dissent, he said.

"The government can speak without contradiction and people who come forward to say 'you're lying' can go to jail."

Mr Bernie said the only protection against abuse of the anti-terror laws would be to enact a Bill of Rights in Australia.

"Britain is subject to a Bill of Rights provision that means legislation passed at a time of fear will later be reviewed by the courts to see how they impact on rights," he said.

"That will happen in Britain but it may not happen in Australia because we don't have a Bill of Rights."

Mr Bernie said he believed the anti-terror laws would be counter-productive, as they would make Muslims feel ostracised from main stream society.

Mr Bernie said the US Bar Association and US Criminal Laws Defence Association had refused to take part in the Guantanamo Bay trial processes and Australian law societies might make similar recommendations if detention laws were abused.

"It's hard to find a lawyer outside Ruddock and Howard who support these laws," he said.

Southern Highland News, Bowral 9/12/05