MOVE TO THWART LONE WOLVES
AUSTRALIA’S domestic spy agency wants beefed-up powers to interrogate suspects as young as 14 and track cars without a warrant to protect the country from lone-wolf attacks.
The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation is seeking new powers that would allow operatives to attach basic tracking devices to cars and place them in handbags without a warrant to respond to threats fast.
It is also pushing for laws that would allow suspects as young as 14 to be interrogated, saying the rise of right-wing extremism and the security threat of foreign interference and espionage has made it necessary.
But lawyers voiced concerns on Friday that the proposed laws lacked safeguards.
Law Council of Australia spokesman David Neal told a parliamentary committee in Canberra ASIO’s questioning powers under the Bill were broader than China’s security laws — a claim vehemently de- nied by ASIO director-general Mike Burgess.
“To suggest that these bills are comparable or in fact that our bill is worse is just beyond the pale. It’s completely, completely wrong,” he said.
The spy agency says the tracking powers, which would require only internal approval or a tick from the AttorneyGeneral, would enable it to respond more quickly to security threats when officers are conducting surveillance on lonewolf or smaller groups.
A COLOURFUL and meaningful piece of abstract art has helped Geelong Indigenous Australians to share important stories with the wider community.
Artists Kiri Wicks and Dr Jenny Murray-Jones led a live-streamed collaborative painting project to mark NAIDOC week.
The concept was the brainchild of the artists and other National Indigenous Knowledges Education Research Innovation (NIKERI) Institute staff, including Tom Molyneux and Adam Tarter.
Ms Wicks said participants engaged in story telling that she and Dr Murray
Jones then through paint.
“It was a shared experience of storytelling,” she said.
Ms Wicks said the sevenhour event included personal story telling and indepth academic discussions around black lives matters.
She said it was important to mark NAIDOC week in some way because other events were postponed to November due to coronavirus.
“We’ve had the Black Lives Matter movement and the pandemic and it made us want to do something for the NAIDOC week that connected us to community and celebrated our history and culture,” Ms Wicks said. expressed