Getting human rights so very wrong
Our political leaders are inching the nation further down the road to a police state, explains Greg Barns
IT is a frightening spectacle when the leaders of a democratic nation term human rights a “luxury”.
One expects such sinister rhetoric from authoritarian leaders like Turkey’s President Recep Erdogan but not from the premiers of Victoria and Western Australia.
Daniel Andrews, Victoria’s Premier and the man responsible earlier this year for locking up children in adult prisons, last Thursday gleefully signed up to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s latest assault on democracy.
Detaining people for 14 days without charge and amassing a photo ID database to spy on us all met with Mr Andrews’ approval.
“Civil liberties” as he sneeringly termed fundamental rights, are simply a “luxury”.
His West Australian counterpart Shane McGowan, who presides over 19th century laws which see Aboriginal Australians jailed in record numbers, agreed.
And New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian sees nothing wrong with detaining people after they have completed their prison term for terrorism offences.
All these politicians wanting to act tough in the never-ending “war on terror”. Every leader of government in a democracy seems happy to trash the rule of law, a core democratic value, in the chase to win votes. Sickening.
These leaders, including Tasmanian Premier Will Hodgman, think it’s OK to literally whisk people off the streets and detain them for 14 days without charge.
No matter that police and security agencies like ASIO will, during the course of this detention, deprive people of sleep, keep people in isolation, refuse to allow access to family members and keep access to legal advice to a minimum.
No matter that such a law is a clear breach of Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which forbids detention for lengthy periods without charge.
And these leaders signed up to the mass surveillance state. Every person with a driver’s licence will be profiled by police and security agencies.
This provides the ability to racially profile and to misuse biometric data to track the movements of individuals who might be protesting against governments, or who are members of NGOs governments want to monitor.
Oh, all this is alarmist nonsense, Mr Hodgman might say. Well, here is the reality. Every police and security agency power on the statute books has been, is being, and will be abused. Last week our political leaders just inched
Every police and security agency power on the statute books has been, is being, and will be abused
this nation further down the police state road.
In fact the only political party to stand up for democracy and the rule of law last week was the Greens.
Tasmanian senator Nick McKim, unlike his colleagues such as Derryn Hinch and Nick Xenophon — who love to champion themselves as the friends of democracy — was rightly enraged at the craven and sickening posturing of Mr Turnbull and state and territory leaders.
Mr McKim’s defence of the rule of law and the need for effective checks and balances on rampant police and security agency abuses through the form of a national human rights law, was refreshing.
At least one group of legislators in this nation believe in the separation of powers, the need to ensure laws are just and that fear mongering about terrorism is cynical base politics and nothing more. Since the September 11, 2001, US terror attacks, there have been more than 70 pieces of antiterrorism legislation passed in the federal and state parliaments.
When is it going to end? Never, it seems.
Because the capture of the Australian state, at the federal and state level, by police and security agencies is complete.
Whatever police and organisations like ASIO, all of which pay only lip service to democratic values, put a proposal for more powers on the desk of a prime minister or premier they get a tick.
Our political leaders, and most legislators with the notable exception of the Greens, are simply the captives of the police state that has emerged using September 11 as a backdrop.
Don’t believe for a moment the rubbish that Daniel Andrews peddled last week about needing to act to prevent terrorism. This is a line trotted out every time a politician acts at the behest of police and ASIO. The reality is that people like Mr Andrews do not care about freedoms and rights. They care only about securing more power for themselves and the police forces and security agencies they now serve.
Australia is heading down the Turkish road. The lack of
commitment to the rule of law and democracy is palpable and just as Turkey has slipped from being an emerging democratic state to one where the police and security agencies rule the roost so Australia is heading in the same direction.
If you do care about democracy and the rule of law then stand up against the forces of darkness that are dismantling Australia.
Thank goodness for Nick McKim and the Greens. Let’s join their campaign and tell politicians we do not want to live in a police state. Do it before it’s too late. Greg Barns is a human rights lawyer. He has advised state, federal Liberal governments.