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Wednesday, 2 November 2005
Nazi
tones in Howard's anti-terror laws:
Fraser FORMER Liberal prime minister
Malcolm Fraser has suggested parts of the
Howard Government's anti-terror package resemble
measures taken by Adolf Hitler and says
Kim Beazley's handling of opposition to the
package should determine his leadership. Mr Fraser said he hoped a High Court challenge
would be mounted to the terror deal, if and when it
was enacted, and said both the presumption of
innocence and the right to silence were being
challenged by what his former treasurer John Howard
was proposing. "Some of this legislation is truly
terrible," he said. "Some of the analogies ...
one of the first pieces of legislation Hitler's
government put into place was something for 'the
good order and safety' of the citizens of
Germany: preventive detention ..."Some parts of the [Australian]
legislation sound horribly familiar." He added preventive detention, under which
suspects could not contact their families nor their
employers, "seems effectively to be a law to make
somebody disappear". "I think that's an odd law for
a country like Australia," Mr Fraser said. He believed the laws as proposed would make
Australia more dangerous, diverting police from
"what they ought to be doing". Mr Fraser said Mr Beazley had done nothing to
slow down the Government's package. He said the
Labor Leader "ought to get roasted by his own
party" and praised the "eloquently" made stance of
Caucus dissident Carmen Lawrence. Of Mr Beazley's stance, of ultimate support of
the Government's package passing, Mr Fraser said,
"Obviously, as a total outsider, I would have
thought this would be a defining moment
[deciding] if Kim Beazley's leadership
continues to go downhill. "He did it unilaterally, without
discussion, and in a way that would be anathema
to a lot of people in his own party, if not the
majority." Mr
Fraser said the Premiers had been panicked "by a
couple of skilful briefings" by security services
to support Mr Howard's position on the contention
the new laws would have prevented the London
bombing in July, a position that was "totally
misleading and untrue". He praised ACT Chief Minister Jon
Stanhope for putting a draft of the proposed
laws on his web site, allowing public
debate. Pictures:
Australia's prime minister Howard -
Australia's
thirteen year war against allowing David Irving
to make a third visit to the country
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