material advocating terrorism

In 2007, the federal Attorney-General announced his desire to introduce laws to ban material that advocates terrorism. The federal government produced a Discussion Paper on the proposal.

CCL opposes the proposal because it is overbroad and existing laws already achieve what the attorney-general seeks to do. You can read CCL's submission and comments on the proposal.

New Terror Laws

The Anti-Terrorism Act 2005 (Cth) has been rushed through Parliament on 2 November (passed by House of Representatives) and 3 November 2005 (passed by Senate). It has received the Royal Assent and is now law.

The Anti-Terrorism Act (No.2) 2005 (Cth) was passed by both Houses of Parliament and came into force on 14 December 2005. The Senate Legal and Constitutional Legislation Committee handed down its report on the Act on 28 November 2005.

This Act is one of the most significant pieces of legislation curtailing our civil liberties ever to be considered by Parliament in peacetime. These laws will remain in force for ten years. And because Australia does not have a Bill of Rights, the courts will not be able to stop civil rights abuses under this Bill.

If you want a plain English explanation of the laws, click here.

In summary, the new laws will (among other things):

broaden the definition of a 'terrorist organisation'
create new laws against 'financing terrorism'
introduce draconian 'control orders' and 'preventative detention orders' - to detain people without charge for extraordinary periods of time
increase police powers to stop, question & search people
force journalists and others to reveal their sources to police by making it an offence not to give up documents that the government wants
create new sedition laws that could even make it illegal to protest against the government's war in Iraq.

Read a plain English explanation of what's in the Bill.

Read CCL's media release "Preventative Detention Threatens All Australians" (27 September 2005).

Read CCL's media release "PM's New Counter-Terrorist Package: Recipe for a Police State" (9 September 2005).

Read CCL's submission to the Senate inquiry into the Anti-Terrorism Bill (No.2) 2005 for yourself.

Read the Anti-Terrorism Bill (No.2) 2005 for yourself.

Read Federal Parliamentary Library's page on the Anti-Terrorism Bill 2005 & reaction to it.