- CANBERRA, Australia (ENS)
- Environmental groups are alarmed that provisions in anti-terrorism legislation
passed by the Australian Parliament Thursday may be used against environmental
groups involved in civil disobedience protests.
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- After 26 hours of debate in the Australian Senate over
four days, a coalition of community groups succeeded in forcing concessions
to the most draconian provisions of a package of anti-terrorism legislation
drafted in the wake of the September 11 attacks in the United States.
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- Still, provisions enabling the minister for foreign affairs
to freeze the assets of organizations and individuals and a definition
of terrorism that could include peaceful protests, were adopted.
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- The legislation has environmental groups worried. "The
definition of terrorism remains so wide ... that we can envisage a situation
in which the government wouldn,t be sorry to freeze the assets of groups
who they took a dislike to, said Shane Rattenbury, a spokesman for Greenpeace
Australia Pacific.
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- While the coalition of community groups has welcomed
the concessions, they deplore the erosion of longstanding civil rights.
"There has been some significant changes made by the opposition parties
... because the of widespread public discontent, but the legislation is
still a significant attack on the fundamental rights of citizens, said
Damien Lawson, the spokesperson for the Federation of Community Legal Centres.
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- The original 120 pages of legislation was tabled in the
House of Representatives in March and rushed through unamended the next
day. The following day the legislation was introduced to the Senate which
warily referred the bills to a committee of inquiry.
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- Faced with a groundswell of opposition from community
and legal groups, even a hastily convened inquiry by the Senate Legal and
Constitutional committee balked at the proposals and recommended substantial
amendments.
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- In introducing the revised legislation with amendments
to the Senate on Monday, the Minister for Justice and Customs Chris Ellison
argued the legislation was "to bolster our armory in the war against
terrorism.
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- The Opposition Labor Party agreed that the original definition
of terrorism as constituting any actions to advance a "political,
religious or ideological cause" that involved "coercing or influencing
by intimidation" was unacceptable. Instead it negotiated with the
government to amend the definition to exclude all actions unless the intent
was to "create a serious risk to the health or safety of the public
or a section of the public.
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- Australian Greens Senator Bob Brown argued in the Senate
that peaceful protests were still vulnerable to on the grounds of claims
that they were a risk to public health or safety.
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- "People protesting in the trees against the logging
of forests in Australia have frequently been claimed to be endangering
life and limb by the logging corporations," he said. "It is surely
not the intention of the government to put conservationists who are acting
in that fashion [blockading logging] into the category of terrorists, because
they are not terrorists, Brown maintained.
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- Senator Bob Brown wears handcuffs outside the office
of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation to dramatize what
could happen to environmental protesters under the new law. Unidentified
supporter looks on.
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- While Ellison insisted non-violent protests would not
be affected, he and the Opposition Labor Party refused to support amendments
to confine the definition of terrorism to violent acts.
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- Other proposals in the Security Legislation Amendment
(Terrorism) Bill 2002 that provided for the attorney general to ban any
groups deemed to be "terrorist organizations were also amended. The
final legislation allows organizations identified by the United Nations
as terrorist organizations to be banned by regulation - which can be disallowed
by a majority vote of the Senate.
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- However, a provision in the Suppression of the Financing
of Terrorism Bill 2002 - one of a package of five bills proposed by the
government - provides for the assets of individuals, companies or organisations
to be frozen at the discretion of the foreign affairs minister.
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- While the government claims there are safeguards, Lawson
points out that in January the attorney general froze the bank accounts
of a Melbourne businessman, James Milne, and had the bank accounts of his
Shining Path Records frozen. Milne says he had never heard of the Peruvian
Shining Path guerrillas until he discovered his bank accounts had been
frozen and checks began to bounce.
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- Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Alex Downer can
freeze the assets of individuals and organizations under the new law.
- In a vigorous rearguard action in the Senate debate,
Senator Brown argued the provisions allowing for the freezing of assets
of organizations were simply a "backdoor method of banning organizations.
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- Brown was dismayed when the Opposition Labor Party voted
with the government to enable the measure to pass. "The only criteria
by which a future government has to use to freeze the bank accounts of
organizations is that the organization is deemed to be a threat to public
health and safety, Brown said.
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- The protracted debate on the initial bills has also forced
the government to reluctantly defer consideration of the Australian Security
Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) Legislation Amendment (Terrorism) Bill
until the mid-August sitting of the Senate.
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- Proposed provisions allow life sentences to be imposed
on those directly or indirectly involved with "terrorist organizations
and allow "suspects to be held without charge or access to a lawyer
for potentially extended periods.
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- Lawson is confident that the ASIO legislation can be
defeated. "There is significant disquiet in the backbench of both
the Liberal and Labor Party ... so I think there is an opportunity over
the next month and a half that the Labor Party can be convinced to oppose
it completely, he said.
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- Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2002. All Rights
Reserved. http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2002/2002-06-27-02.asp
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