Another bundle of intrusions  

The SMH has a summary of 2007's most egregious offences against civil liberties in Australia. I suspect we aren't any worse off than our fellow Anglosphere nations - liberal democracy has taken quite a hammering in recent years from the authoritarian idiots in our midst...

OVER the past 12 months there was an impressive list of civil liberties violations in our relaxed and comfortable land. A year ago we published a list showing how our liberties had been whittled, starting with the sedition laws and ending with David Hicks. Now there is a fresh outcrop of abrasions to our rights, although, sadly, there is an eerie consistency about some of the players. Here goes.

10. Trent Smith and all the other public servants prosecuted by the Commonwealth for allegedly leaking. Smith successfully challenged his sacking by the Department of Foreign Affairs after a four-year, $1 million witch-hunt. His case was of quite specific interest to the then minister, Alexander Downer, after a prolonged investigation found Smith had not leaked the minister's loose-lipped remarks to the New Zealand high commissioner that Australia was already committed to military action in Iraq, regardless of what the UN did. Smith was in the gun again, falsely accused of breaching the public service conduct code after providing in 2002 a non-controversial email response to a query from one of Kevin Rudd's staff members.

9. The escalation in police powers. The special APEC laws allowed the police to create "restricted areas … excludable persons … and prohibited items". The onus of proof was reversed, there was a presumption against bail, and in most searches the police were not required to apply for warrants. The Cronulla riots and affray legislation, which was to have expired last month, has been extended indefinitely by the Iemma Government. "Cemented" was the Premier's word. Areas can be cordoned off allowing police to search people, confiscate "offensive" property (including mobile phones and Australian flags). And a "reasonable" suspicion is not required before searches are conducted.

8. Deportations. ASIO is to appeal (again) against the Federal Court's findings that it is obliged to provide deportees with details of their adverse security assessments. This includes two refugees who were held on Nauru for nearly five years as well as Scott Parkin, the protester who was jailed and then kicked out of the country - without explanation. Then there was the case of Hew Griffiths, who was sentenced to 51 months' jail in the US last year for conspiracy to commit copyright infringements against US software companies. Griffiths, an Australian resident, was in jail here for three years while he fought extradition. Even though he downloaded the software in Australia, the courts regarded the offence as taking place in the US.

7. The Pine Gap four. These Christian pacifists were found guilty and fined after gaining entry to the Pine Gap spy base. They alleged that the base was used by the US to help with bombing raids in Iraq. The four trespassers were prosecuted under the hitherto unused Defence (Special Undertakings) Act of 1952. The Crown asked the court to send the four to jail.

6. Dr Izhar ul-Haque. Justice Michael Adams found that ASIO falsely imprisoned, kidnapped and intimidated a Sydney medical student, Izhar ul-Haque. Ul-Haque had been charged with receiving terrorist training in Pakistan. The judge said the records of interview were inadmissible and the trial collapsed. It has been reported that the secretary of the Attorney-General's department, Robert Cornall, has lodged a complaint about Adams with the Judicial Commission. Gerard Henderson accused the judge of acting "essentially on the basis of a whim". Even though ASIO agents gave extensive evidence to the court, the organisation's head, Paul O'Sullivan, complained that they had not had a chance to rebut the accusation made against them.

5. The mounting campaign against a human rights charter for Australia. You have enough rights already, some conservative academics and columnists say. No more rights for you, they argue, while their newspapers demand more freedoms for the media. The complaint is that to have a charter of rights in this country would result in a transfer of power from elected politicians to unelected judges. Underpinning this proposition is that politicians must be good (or wise) and judges bad (or foolish). Yet most other civilised countries have some sort of rights legislation and have managed to survive.

4. Philip Ruddock. Once again the former attorney-general deserves his own special entry in the human rights hall of infamy. This time for his unique conception that an accused person can have a "fair trial" based on hearsay evidence and evidence extracted by coercion.

3. The High Court of Australia. In its own quiet way the highest court has contributed to the shrinkage of our freedoms. In particular, freedom of speech has taken a battering in the recent Channel Seven Adelaide v Manock decision, which deals with the defence of comment in defamation cases. Contrary to longstanding authority, the majority reasoning suggests that for any published comment to be defensible it must be "reasonable". The right of the crank or ratbag to rail in favour of unpopular causes has been severely curtailed, if not abolished.

2. David Hicks and the control order. This was a control order based on outpourings that were up to eight years old. It assumes that in eight years the man has not changed. Certainly, the way some sections of the media and the former foreign minister have hounded and continue to demonise Hicks since his "release", he will not be permitted to change. He remains forever "evil".

1. Dr Mohamed Haneef.