THE Australian Catholic Social Justice Council (ACSJC) has attacked the Federal Government’s proposed anti-terror legislation.
ACSJC acting chairman, Bishop Christopher Saunders of Broome welcomed the recommendations from the Senate Legal and Constitutional Legislation Committee on May 9 that the legislation be amended.
But he said the committee’s recommendations did not meet all the concerns raised by the community and the proposed legislation could endanger the rights and freedoms it set out to protect.
‘In the absence of a grave and immediate terrorist threat to Australia,’ he said, ‘I urge the legislation be rejected and rewritten rather than amended.
‘The ACSJC does not believe the Government has demonstrated the need for it. Eminent lawyers and jurists have likened these measures to the apparatus of a police state.
‘The Government should demonstrate that the existing criminal law is insufficient before introducing such draconian measures.’
