how might the new terrorist laws be used against us?
The new terrorist bill implements a number of new regimes: Control orders will allow the Australian Federal Police (AFP) to obtain from Courts a 12 month control order which would permit the use of tracking devices, travel and restrictions on association. This concept builds on already existing apprehended violence orders. The regime of preventative detention has received considerable media coverage. Originally detention was to be permitted for up to 48 hours in a terrorist situation, to stop further attacks. Terror suspects can now be held for 14 days incommunicado. This has raised an issue of the Constitutional validity of this part of the law and federal government Solicitor Henry Burmester QC has said that there is no guarantee that the proposals did not breach the Constitution. The High Court held in Lim v Minister for Immigration, Local Government and Ethnic Affairs (1992) 176 CLR 1 that “the involuntary detention of a citizen in custody by the State is penal or punitive in chara
