Tuesday 11 December 2007

Only one week into the new Rudd Government and some questions begin to niggle

In recent years the fact that Labor in Opposition often railed against the Howard Government but voted with it, on measures to restrict civil liberties and human rights, did not go unnoticed.
Now the Rudd Government is installed a number of questions arise.

In the March 2008 High Court legal challenge to provisions of Howard's NT Intervention, will the Commonwealth be registering an interest in the matter or will it be defending this racist legislation?

Will the Rudd Government adopt all the considered and moderate recommendations of the Australian Law Reform Commission's report on Howard's sedition laws or does it intend to drag its heels and hope we all forget about this sustained assault on our fundamental freedoms?

What is the this new government planning to do about the ludicrous situation which allowed Australian territory to be excised from the Commonwealth for the purpose of refugee status assessment?

Will the Rudd Cabinet have the guts to order a full review of Commonwealth anti- terrorism laws in relation to compliance with constitutional and international law?

I suspect that I am not the only one who would like a few answers.

1 comment:

Jim Belshaw said...

I do not think that the Rudd Government will be different on many issues. Look at the latest news on David Hicks.

What I do hope though,is that they will address some of what I saw as dreadful due process failures by the Howard Government.