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Anti-Terrorism Laws Deadline Can Be Met-Just Say No Today
November 1st 2005


NSW Democrat MLC, Dr Arthur Chesterfield-Evans, challenges the NSW Labor government to defend the Human Rights of the NSW public and demonstrate their support for the rule of law by opposing the Howard government's proposed Anti-terror laws.

"Detention without charge, house arrest and disappearing people on undefined and ambiguous offences is scarily close to techniques used to suppress dissent by authoritarian regimes in Burma, China and Iraqi under Saddam Hussein. This is clearly not appropriate for a country that calls itself a democracy," he said.

Dr Chesterfield-Evans believes that the NSW Labor government should not be asking for time to consider amendment to inherently anti-democratic laws.

"If the NSW Attorney-General, Bob Debus believes that these laws are wrong in principle and bad in practice, then there is no need for further debate or consideration. The Premier should have no hesitation in giving the Prime Minister his answer today, and it should be a short, sharp, 'No', said Dr. Chesterfield-Evans.

Dr Chesterfield-Evans rejects any sense of obligation that the Premier might feel about his prior consent to an undisclosed document.

"The Labor Premiers agreed to the legislation in complete ignorance of what it contained. It is lunacy to suggest that they go ahead with it just because they agreed to discuss a uniform set of laws. To agree to draft legislation, sight unseen, was a mistake, and they should feel no compunction about rejecting this bill," he said.

Dr Chesterfield-Evans has called for a full and frank discussion of why Australia is at risk from terrorism, and challenges Labor to make good on their "No War On Iraq" rhetoric of the past 32 months in order to safeguard the human rights and civil liberties that define Australia.

"The proposed legislation tries to reconcile the Australian public to the risk we are running by continuing to be a part of the US occupation of Iraq. If the Labor Premiers support the Howard government's proposed laws, then Labor will undermine their alleged opposition to this war," he concluded.