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Bracks to give police more powers
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Civil Rights Network
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Sep 20, 2005 18:10 PDT
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Bracks to give police new powers
By Farrah Tomazin
State Political Reporter
September 21, 2005
VICTORIAN police will be given unprecedented powers to stop and search
suspects, seize goods and "covertly" search people's homes under new
counter-terrorism laws.
The changes will be among measures to be announced today by Premier
Steve Bracks and introduced in Parliament early next year.
Under the changes:
The Premier may in "limited circumstances" give police authority to stop
and search people and vehicles, demand identification and seize goods.
Police will also be able to cordon off certain areas, such as major
events considered likely targets.
Police will have greater powers to search properties "covertly". At
present, police must believe that a terrorist act has been committed to
conduct a covert search. The changes will allow police to obtain a
warrant for a covert search if they believe someone is planning an
attack or is motivated to commit one.
Police will be able to obtain closed-circuit television footage, without
a court order, to investigate possible terrorist attacks.
It will be made easier to bring interstate and federal police into
Victoria as "special constables" to help local authorities.
The proposals will be discussed at a multi-faith summit in Melbourne
tomorrow and by federal, state and territory leaders at the Council of
Australian Governments meeting next Tuesday.
Mr Bracks said he believed the plan struck a balance between giving
police appropriate powers and protecting people's rights. "We must
ensure our law enforcement bodies have the tools they need to fight
terrorism," he said.
But a civil liberties group said the changes could do more harm than
good. "In Australia, no one for … nearly 30 years has died from
terrorist attacks," said Liberty Victoria president Brian Walters, SC.
"This is just rewarding terrorists by inflating the risk, which is
exactly what they want, to make themselves more important than they
are."
Victoria's counter-terrorism package — which comes 10 days after
Melbourne and Los Angeles were named on an al-Qaeda video as possible
attack targets — is separate to proposals announced by Prime Minister
John Howard this month.
Under the federal plan, police and ASIO would get new powers to fit
terror suspects with tracking devices, detain them for up to 14 days
without charge and make random bag searches in public areas. Migrants
would have to wait three years, not two, before becoming citizens, and
screening of visa and citizenship applications would be tightened.
Islamic groups have condemned the federal plan as a divisive approach
that could make Australia more vulnerable to attacks.
State Government sources say Mr Bracks would be unwilling to support any
national measures if they were not subject to judicial review and sunset
clauses.
Mr Bracks' announcement today will follow similar moves in Western
Australia and South Australia to give police new stop-and-search powers.
State Opposition Leader Robert Doyle expressed support for measures to
combat terrorism, but said he would need to see the detail to ensure the
laws were balanced. He also asked why they were not being introduced
well ahead of the Commonwealth Games in March.
The Government hopes the proposed laws are passed before the Games.
However, a Government spokeswoman said the Games already had a separate
range of security measures that would be in place before the Games'
start on March 15.
Meanwhile, prominent federal Liberal Petro Georgiou has urged
parliamentary scrutiny of new anti-terrorism measures "to ensure that,
in the course of defending the democratic values which terrorism
attacks, we do not inadvertently betray them".
Delivering a lecture at La Trobe University, Mr Georgiou said he had
"significant reservations" about the plan to allow preventive detention
of suspects.
Mr Georgiou also hit back at calls by fellow Liberal MPs to ban Muslim
girls from wearing head scarfs in schools.
"While a substantial majority of the Australian public believes that a
terrorist attack in Australia is inevitable, and effective action needs
to be taken against it, many are wary of sweeping measures that might
unduly curtail their liberties and the rights of their fellow citizens,"
he said.
With Michael Gordon
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