Australia's draconian sedition laws and the Australian Press Council

Last Tuesday the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs held a hearing as part its Inquiry into the Anti-Terrorism Laws Reform Bill 2009.

This private members bill seeks to undo some of the harm done to freedom of speech by Howard Government anti-terrorism legislation, which was subsequently supported by a Rudd Government which has failed to address concerns since it came to office and virtually ignored the Australian Law Reform Commission report and recommendations to date.

Here is an extract from the Australian Press Council's submission to the inquiry:

Executive Summary

Consistent with its long held position that sedition laws are an impediment to freedom of expression and have the potential to have a 'chilling effect', the Australian Press Council support the removal of sedition offences in s80.2 of the Criminal Code Act in their entirety.

In view of the lack of precision in the definition of a "thing" in s101.4 of the Criminal Code Act, the Council is concerned that journalists could be exposed to being charged with a serious offence should they inadvertently come into possession of material in the course undertaking their role. The current provision is unsafe and the Council supports that proposal in the Bill that the section be repealed.

Where it is practical to do so, the Council supports the proposed amendments to Division 102 of the Criminal Code Act that would bring the processes for proscribing a terrorist organisation in line with the requirements of administrative law. By ensuring publicity, public consultation,consideration of submissions by an independent advisory committee, notice and a right of appeal the proposed amendments increase transparency, public and media scrutiny and enhance the public right to know.

The Council supports proposed amendments to s102.7 of the Criminal Code Act to ensure that providing support to a terrorist organisation cannot be construed to apply merely to the publication of view favourable to a proscribed organisation.

Consistent with its earlier submissions, the Council express its concerns that this Division 3 Part III of the ASIO Act poses a threat to freedom of speech and has the potential to obstruct the ability of the media to ensure that government agencies are held to public account and that the questioning and detention practices of ASIO do not go beyond what is necessary to facilitate the investigation and prevention of terrorism.

Consistent with its earlier submissions, the Council holds the view that the National Security Information (Criminal and Civil Proceedings) Act is a threat to freedom of the press and it potentially oppressive. The Council supports repeal of this legislation as proposed in the Bill.

Full PDF copy of Australian Press Council submission

List of submissions to the inquiry

Doris O'Grady's art from the Seelands district

Cows at Tristania

Discovering Doris O'Grady 1902 - 1994 exhibition at Grafton Regional Gallery

Main gallery until 25 October 2009

Pavonia Hastata growing on bank of the Clarence 1927

Untitled 1928

Maclean man pleads guilty to Internet intimidation & other charges - gets 12 month good behaviour bonds

The Daily Examiner, 24 September 2009, page 4
Click to enlarge

Yesterday, Grafton Local Court convicted Berlin, also known as John Paul Breslin, of charges of intimidation with intention to cause physical/mental harm, possessing a police uniform when not a policeman, selling police insignia and using police insignia when not a police officer.
In court Berlin changed his plea to guilty on all charges after the defence and prosecution agreed to combine several of the charges.
Berlin came under police notice when he sent abusive and threatening emails to a man living in the United States who distributed police insignia under licence from the NSW Police Department between June and September last year.

Last Monday was World Alzheimer's Day, but I forgot.......

.........which is not as funny as it sounds given the age group I am entering.

The day after that the Northern Rivers Tweed Daily News reported:

TWEED Heads has the highest rate of dementia cases in the state and it's predicted this number will more than triple in coming decades, according to new figures out today.

THE report, commissioned by Alzheimer's Australia NSW, found the Tweed area had the highest incidence of dementia in NSW with 1608 cases this year, increasing to a projected 7451 in 41 years.

In 2009 Alzheimers Australia and Access Economics estimated that 36,000 people diagnosed with dementia live outside of Sydney in rural and regional New South Wales, and Of those people with new cases of dementia in New South Wales in 2009, approximately 14,000 live in Sydney, while approximately 10,000 reside in the balance of New South Wales. Projections suggest that the incidence of dementia in Sydney will increase 4.9-fold to approximately 67,600 (63,600-71,400) people, while new cases of dementia in thebalance of NSW will increase 4.8-fold to 48,700 (45,800-51,400) people by 2050.

The Big Dry, The Big Red, the big dust choke on the NSW North Coast - but Lismore still played on at the 2009 Festival of Cricket

Photo from ABC North Coast News

The Northern Star this morning:
"THE DUST storm that enveloped the North Coast yesterday at one point stretched to Mount Isa and caused humidity at Ballina to plummet to an almost unheard of minus 2 per cent.
Every drop of water was sucked from the air by the dry continental air mass, prompting the Rural Fire Service to declare a total fire ban.
Like a giant snowball it grew as it travelled, blowing close to 16,000 tonnes of dust across the coast every hour."

However, the boys in white were determined to play on in Lismore at Oaks Oval in the 2009 Festival of Cricket!

More pics from The Northern Star, The Daily Examiner, and Nellibell.

Grafton Bridge

Copmanhurst backyard

Lismore airport on 23rd September 2009

Even more pics of Tabulam and Ballina at The Far North Coaster.

Have your say on Australia's anti-terrorism laws before 25th September 2009

Australian Greens MPs have written to Attorney-General Robert McClelland about the Rudd Government's intention to expand Australia's anti-terrorism laws:

Dear Attorney-General,

I welcome the opportunity to comment on proposed changes to Australia's anti-terrorism legislation in a public consultation process.

I am concerned, that detailed changes to our laws are being proposed before the government has provided the promised White Paper on terrorism, or before the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Laws has begun their work.

I am particularly concerned about the proposal that the Australian Federal Police be permitted to enter premises without a warrant under emergency circumstances that are not clearly defined.

While Dr. Haneef Aside would have benefited from a 7 day cap on being held without a charge, I am concerned that there has been no demonstrated need for the proposed 7 day preventative detention period, and that setting such a maximum could be a licence to use it.

I am not convinced that the proposed redefinition of the act of terrorism is an improvement,, rather the proposal significantly widens the offence. You have departed significantly from the proposals put forward by the Sheller Committee. Your changes will make the legislation more complex, and simultaneously uncertain. Some legal practitioners have suggested that it will be unworkable.

I do not support the strengthening of the National Security Information Act, which allows for closed court proceedings, effectively locking lawyers out of the room, and for some evidence to be closed to the accused and their legal representatives. It also requires security clearances for lawyers which threatens the right to a fair trial and limits the pool of lawyers permitted to act in cases. Your proposed changes would contravene the separation of powers established by chapter three of the Constitution.

As Australia played an active role in establishing the terms of the so-called war on terror, Australia has a role in reformulating what a legitimate response to terrorism should look like. This import role cannot be undermined by unconsidered, ineffective reform.

The Greens also have an online petition which can be signed before 25 September 2009:

The Greens have been calling for review of our anti-terrorism laws since well before the Rudd government was elected. Rammed through our Parliament in 2005, the Howard-Ruddock anti-terrorism laws demand urgent review and overhaul rather than strengthening, because of how seriously they undermine our human and civil rights.

If you would like to sign this petition go here.

Obama still being pursued through US court over his birth certificate and right to hold office

The hostility towards US President Barack Obama continues in the far right section of the blogosphere, in some mainstream media reporting and through action in the courts. American lawyers must having a field day.

Elizabeth Ann Pascal is defending her president in a case currently before a US district court, Kerchner et al v Obama et al.

The plaintiffs in this case assert in part that Barack Hussien Obama II was not solely born a US citizen and cannot hold office as President of the United States of America.

Here is Elizabeth's July 2009 motion to dismiss and the plaintiff's August 2009 response. The matter apparently remains on the court docket at the time of writing this post.

This civil action was not the only one of its kind and, at least one other appears to be still extant as Barnett el al v Obama et al, which has a scheduling conference on 5 October 2009.

The strangest of all these cases (although one brought when Obama was still a senator and based on race not citizenship) has to have been the sealed and dismissed The Church of Jesus Christ Christian/Aryan Nations of Missouri et al v. Obama et al which originated with this filed statement of claim.

Obamaconspiracy has a complete rundown here on how these court actions are playing out.

Youth Decide: they may not all have the vote yet but politicians ignore at their peril

Click on snapshot to enlarge

Youth Decide wasn't just a vote. It's a movement. And the next step is to deliver these results to all Federal politicians.

Over thirty-four thousand young Australians taking part in a recent survey opted for a national and global response to climate change which actually reduced greenhouse gas levels beyond the green wash currently being proposed by most politicians.

Twitterverse is tittering at PETA

There's been a lot of re-tweeting out there on Twitter since someone discovered the phonetic resonance of the name given by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) to its blog - The PETA Files.

If nothing else it should give Aussie graziers and woolgrowers a bit of a laugh - as well as possibly falling foul of one or two overly sensitive filtering software programs.

Perhaps I should send a memo to the Minister for Censorship and Rememberance of Children, ol' Stevo Conroy.......

Penny Wong talks to Asia Society about Copenhagen and beyond - 11pm [AEST] Wednesday 23 September 2009 webcast, listener questions

The Asia Society wants to let you know about an upcoming webcast, Copenhagen and Beyond – The Post-2012 Agreement.

Senator the Hon. Penny Wong, Minister for Climate Change and Water will be speaking with Asia Society's own Orville Schell, the director of the Center on US-China Relations, tomorrow at Wednesday, September 23, 2009 from 8:30-9:30 a.m., ET (New York).

We hope that you will join us online by visiting our website www.AsiaSociety.org, and following the directions there.

The webcast will be available 30 minutes before the program begins.

Listeners will also have opportunities to send their questions in to moderator@asiasociety.org, where they will be addressed during the program.

Policy Programs,

Asia Society

Guest Speak is a North Coast Voices segment allowing serious or satirical comment from NSW Northern Rivers residents. Email ncvguestpeak at live dot com dot au to submit comment for consideration.

How did your pet get its name?

Contributors to The Sydney Morning Herald's Column 8 provide insights on naming family pets.

John Barselaar, of Coffs Harbour, ''My local vet is a man of fine humour and a pundit like myself, but I have to take my hat off to his recent repartee in the surgery. A woman came in with two dogs feeling poorly. When asked the dogs' names she replied Beethoven and Bach. Immediately he saw the problem, and advised her they were feeling Lisztless!'' (Monday 21/9)

''Naming family pets after famous composers is not all that unusual,'' writes Steve Zervos of Abbotsford (Column 8, yesterday). ''We named our kitten Beethoven because just after we picked him up and brought him home, he made his first movement on the piano.'' (Tuesday 22/9)

''Beethoven the cat,'' writes Michael Morton-Evans (Column 8, Monday), ''puts me in mind of Tyson the dog. A friend many years ago bought a dachshund and named him Tyson, after the Lancashire-born fast bowler Frank 'Typhoon' Tyson. When asked why, he explained: 'Because he has four short legs and his balls swing both ways.'' (Wednesday 23/9)

'Losing to win' a pandora's box for bowls

Here's Iluka resident Jim Brigginshaw's take on allegations that Kiwi lawn bowlers folded in a game against lowly-ranked Thailand in last month's Asia-Pacific championships in Malaysia to ensure rivals Canada would be eliminated.

Brigginshaw, who has a regular column in The Northern Star, wrote:

IF, as Bowls Australia chief executive Dalrymple is reported as saying, there's nothing in the rules of bowls to stop a team deliberately losing a game, it's time there was.

Assuming he's been quoted correctly, his wishy-washy response to allegations against the New Zealand national team is less than reassuring that this blot has no place in our sport.

Attributed to him are comments such as 'hard to find fault', 'people willing to push the limits', and the top clanger of all, 'there's a question of whether it's in the spirit of the game'.

A question? There's no question - if bowls has degenerated to the stage where we have to think whether to ask questions about the legality, or even propriety, of what clearly is a breach of sporting integrity, heaven help us.

The difficulty, of course, is deciding when a team is not performing to its ability. But if there is obvious evidence of it, the culprits should have the book thrown at them.

The New Zealand team says it was a legitimate loss. The official inquiry will have difficulty proving otherwise.

These allegations gave Bowls Australia an opportunity to take a strong stance against deliberately losing a game. Instead, we got a weak-kneed response.

Source: The Northern Star

Images from abc.net.au and bowlsnz.co.nz

A phone, a phone. My kingdom for a phone! [or the dubious joy of living in a regional blackspot]

The children have grown and moved to cities across Australia, however they were all back for a family gathering recently.

We had a great time; the only thing that caused problems was the mobile phone reception or more correctly the chronic lack of phone coverage.
Though since they all had different carriers I thought for sure someone should get a signal.

The first symptoms of phonitis appeared within 4 to 6 hours of arriving. "I’ll just pick up any messages from work", friends etc; then the cold sweat, and the realisation of no reception.

It was like a snowball affect, as soon as one discovered they could not use their phone you could see the panic in the eyes of the others. They all stampeded to their phone lifelines.

The youngest daughter discovered that if she squeezed herself under my desk and held the phone at a 45 degree angle pointing north she could get one bar of coverage. Just enough to receive SMS. The look of relief on her face was classic. So much so I could not resist and took a photo to record the event.

The others headed outside, showing great faith in their various phone companies. Then looks of horror on their faces when none received a signal.

One headed for higher ground where he eventually found reception over 1 km away at the left front gate post. If he stood on the post he could talk on his phone. Mind you it did drop out quite a bit.

The younger son who is not much on exercise decided that he would go up to the third floor of the house. This was not enough, so by trial and error he discovered that if he hung out of the east facing window on the third floor and held the phone in one hand and the TV aerial cable in the other he was intermittently in contact with the outside world.

The eldest girl showed great calm and headed for my computer. The facade of calm was shattered when she realised that it was dial-up and only marginally faster than snail mail.

When the neighbour's hazard reduction burn accidentally set fire to the telephone junction box and the landline went out, then smoke from the fires interfered with what little signal they had, it all became too much. They all headed into town for Maccas and 'real' phone coverage.

Graphic: Google Images

There's no getting away from it - high political office changes the family

Not long after his inauguration US President Barack Obama flew a chef from St Louis to Washington so that he could have pizza with the boys.
Then his kids were seen jetting off for an upmarket overseas holiday with Dad and Mum via Air Force One.
But none of that really pointed to the unreality of life in The White House until Michelle Obama went shopping for food in September 2009 while many ordinary Americans were still reeling from the global financail crisis.
Yes, this recent Washington Post article shows the wrong side of Chicago is now truly a lifetime away.

"The Secret Service and the D.C. police brought in three dozen vehicles and shut down H Street, Vermont Avenue, two lanes of I Street and an entrance to the McPherson Square Metro station. They swept the area, in front of the Department of Veterans Affairs, with bomb-sniffing dogs and installed magnetometers in the middle of the street, put up barricades to keep pedestrians out, and took positions with binoculars atop trucks. Though the produce stand was only a block or so from the White House, the first lady hopped into her armored limousine and pulled into the market amid the wail of sirens.

Then, and only then, could Obama purchase her leafy greens. "Now it's time to buy some food," she told several hundred people who came to watch. "Let's shop!"

Cowbells were rung. Somebody put a lei of marigolds around Obama's neck. The first lady picked up a straw basket and headed for the "Farm at Sunnyside" tent, where she loaded up with organic Asian pears, cherry tomatoes, multicolored potatoes, free-range eggs and, yes, two bunches of Tuscan kale. She left the produce with an aide, who paid the cashier as Obama made her way back to the limousine.........

Obama, in her brief speech to the vendors and patrons, handled the affordability issue by pointing out that people who pay with food stamps would get double the coupon value at the market. Even then, though, it's hard to imagine somebody using food stamps to buy what the market offered: $19 bison steak from Gunpowder Bison, organic dandelion greens for $12 per pound from Blueberry Hill Vegetables, the Piedmont Reserve cheese from Everson Dairy at $29 a pound. Rounding out the potential shopping cart: $4 for a piece of "walnut dacquoise" from the Praline Bakery, $9 for a jumbo crab cake at Chris's Marketplace, $8 for a loaf of cranberry-walnut bread and $32 for a bolt of yarn."

Time to get real, M'chelle!

Photographs from Google Images

Senator Fielding accidentally produces a little light relief in the international climate change policy debate

I opened my browser yesterday morning to find the Herald-Sun giving a few online centimetres to this:

A CROSSBENCH senator who doubts the science of climate change says he may back an Australian Government plan to let developing countries propose their own cuts to carbon emissions.

Mirth immediately took over for several minutes.
What on earth is Steve Fielding talking about? Any idiot can tell that a matter of government foreign affairs policy which will not require legislation to implement does not need endorsement from the only Family First party member to make it into federal parliament.

The man and his constant need to be in the political limelight is a national embarrassment.
The only consolation is that published print versions of his opinions will quickly disappear into the recycler's maw or landfill, while digital versions on the Internet will eventually lead to data mining results like this from Personas which actually appear to reflect his lack of credibility:

TECHNORATI SEARCH: STEVE FIELDING IS A CREDULOUS DOPE STEVE FIELDING IS A VEXING SUBJECT
STEVE FIELDING IS JUST A MEDIA TORTE
STEVE FIELDING IS RENOWNED FOR HIS PUBLICITY STUNTS
WHETHER HE CAN SPELL OR NOT, STEVE FIELDING IS AN IDIOT