Stasi State – Howard style

Hot on the heels of the Haneef kerfuffle, the Howard government seems intent on moving Australia one step closer to a Stasi-styled Police State, intending to grant police authorities unprecedented ‘sneak and peek’ powers to search people’s homes and computers without court approval for ‘serious’ crimes attracting a jail penalty of 10 years or more.

Australian Federal Police will have the right to monitor communications equipment without a warrant, assume false identities to enter premises for surreptitious searches, and the person concerned does not have to be informed for at least six months, and can remain uninformed for 18 months if the warrant is rolled over.

The warrant can be issued by the head of a police service or security agency without the approval of a judicial officer. Under the proposed legislation undercover operations by federal agents may include criminal activity to further their investigations. And should it all go pear-shaped, as in the bungled incompetence of the Haneef case, the bill also provides for immunity not only to the undercover police or security officer involved, but also civilian informants who are part of the operation. I gather there is also provision for foreign security services to operate in Australia under the same provisions with immunity.

Simply talking about investigations under the existing terror legislation can attract prison term of 10-15 years. Presumably I am liable to be subjected to the new surveillance laws just for being a blogger who writes critically about these issues. Must remember to encrypt my wireless router.

That an authoritarian centrist conservative political party can still call itself ‘Liberal’ is now officially beyond a joke. Don’t expect a peep of of Australia’s conservative Libertarians. Their concept of liberty stops extends only to the free market.

Filed under: Australian values, Law, Politics