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Add page to: Add page to: This is a call to action to write a letter and send it to your Head of State and their opposition protesting the current threats to civil liberites (see email message duplicated on this page for more information). To make it easier for you, you can copy and paste the text from the box on this page into an email or letter (and modify as desired). You can also send an email to have your name added to a petition (see letter/email on this page for the email address/weblink).
Links to background and additional information are available as 'related resources'. Some resources are simply links to Google search results to avoid bias and to help you find a number of resources and views on the issues mentioned on this page.
*These details may change, to find out your latest head of state, check out Heads of Government: Australian Federal & State Governments
-----Original Message-----
Subject: [resistance] Stop the war on civil liberties!
Add your name to this sign-on statement
Prime Minister John Howard is using the "war on terror" to promote widespread fear about "terrorists" and "terrorism" in Australia. This is despite the fact that the biggest act of terror being committed today is being carried out by foreign troops, including Australia's, in occupied Iraq.
We condemn the Howard government's reactionary "security" agenda, and the unanimous support of Labor state and territory governments for the draconian federal "anti-terror" laws at the COAG summit on September 27. This represents a bi-partisan attack on our democratic rights.
ALP federal opposition leader Kim Beazley wanted to go further and have all the states to adopt what already exist in NSW where the Police Commissioner has the power to order a lock-down of whole suburbs where there is a suspected "terrorist".
As civil rights lawyers and activists have pointed out, the major parties have signed onto measures to overturn the presumption of innocence and the right to privacy and which are a direct attack on our political freedoms.
The only people who have so far been charged with a "terrorism offence" are Muslims and all groups that have been proscribed as "terrorist organisations" under the Criminal Code are organisations that espouse a connection to Islam. It is clear that the new powers are already being mostly used against Muslim Australians, thereby breaching the principle of equality before the law.
But there is every reason to believe that these laws will soon be used against anyone who disagrees with the government — striking workers, anti-corporate protesters, critical journalists, and peace activists.
The arrest and deportation of US peace activist Scott Parkin, on the grounds of "national security", gives some idea of how the state is preparing to use its increased power.
The "national security" and "anti-terror" laws already adopted bystate and federal governments have given ASIO and the police forces the power to harass, persecute, prosecute and imprison people with impunity. The new draconian laws are also aimed "advocacy of terrorism".
But the "anti-terror" laws have done nothing to reduce the risk of terrorist attack, here or in any other country. Their real purpose is to intimidate and silence dissent. In particular, they aim to gag opposition to the imperialists' wars on Iraq, Afghanistan and any other poor country the US and its allies decide to invade.
We, the undersigned, call on Australian government to:
Further, we call on the federal Labor opposition and all state Labor governments to act decisively to stop the decimation of democratic rights in Australia by:
To add your name to this statement, email gro.ecnailla-tsilaicos#64;eciffo_lanoitan (*)
For more information, get the Laws Insecurity Report
If you don't want to write a letter just yet, it can't hurt to at least do some reading (on all sides of the issues) and make yourself aware of the issues being referred to - ignorance may be bliss in the short term, but in the long term it can be quite damaging.
