How to thwart a bill in three easy steps – theage.com.au

How to thwart a bill in three easy steps

PETRO GEORGIOU – The Age – October 24, 2009

THAT legendary fictional bureaucrat, Sir Humphrey Appleby, has choreographed how governments stifle an unwanted legislative proposal. Step one – ignore it. If it persists, move to step two, deflect and defer. If it is still standing, move to the third, terminal step. Embrace it in a godfatherly clinch, hold it close while slipping on the legislative garrotte. Watching this on television can be entertaining. Seeing it in real life isn’t. The garrotte is now being used to choke the emergence of an independent reviewer of the terrorist laws.

The executive has pretty much had its way in getting the laws it wants to fight terrorism. Since the al-Qaeda attacks of 2001, 49 counter-terrorist laws have been passed. Some of the executive excesses have been blocked by the Parliament. Unquestionably, however, the past eight years have witnessed a strengthening in police and security powers and a curbing of freedoms and legal protections against the state.

As the surge of terror laws continued, legislators and government-appointed inquiries have increasingly pressed for an independent and ongoing review of these laws, including their effectiveness and fairness.

The Government has now introduced the National Security Monitor Bill, which it claims reflects the recommendations for an independent reviewer. Nothing could be further from the truth…

The bedrock of all the recommendations for a reviewer is independence from executive control and censorship, freedom to determine priorities, and examine all terrorism laws. Independence requires the ability to report publicly to Parliament, subject to not prejudicing national security, operations or trials.

The monitor bill fundamentally negates every element of statutory independence. It deploys every legislative artifice, legal and symbolic, to neuter the monitor…

The monitor bill is a travesty, but it is not a joke. The avalanche of terrorist laws since 2001 has radically curbed the protection of the individual. To safeguard our democracy, strong, independent and ongoing scrutiny of these laws and their operation is needed. The Government’s monitor is a subverted safeguard. If this legislation passes into law, the monitor will effectively be handcuffed, gagged and tied to the whim of the government…

Petro Georgiou is the member for Kooyong.

via How to thwart a bill in three easy steps – theage.com.au