New Book ban laws and more.

[LiteraryPiano]

I spoke to someone from the Australian Press Council (APC) today
and also a leading Professor of Law, George Williams, from the
University of New South Wales (UNSW) today. They have both
asserted that the 'material that advocates terrorism' act was
passed by the senate and the lower house several weeks ago. I was
surprised, because I haven't been able to find a sceric of media
coverage on this proposal officially going through and I have been
watching this pretty extensively. Like the I.R. laws, Mr Williams
has told me that these terrorism book laws have been designed in
such a way that they can't be clearly understood. Henceforth, any
book the government see's as 'politically sensitive' can now be
officially seized by customs and/or taken off the shelf. I say
that unequivocally. Not to mention, we already have the blasted
sedition laws on top of this. What does this say potentially in
the future about Tariq Ali, Noam Chomsky, John Pilger, Nafees
Mossadeq Ahmed, Arundhati Roy, to name a few?

I called customs about the legal ambiguities of importing books
now on Middle Eastern security from Amazon, after speaking to the
APC and the UNSW. Hence, how likely is it to wind up with your
package seized now just for ordering a book? How likely is one now
to wind up on an ASIO watch list, just for what they are ordering
on Amazon? Going by the Attorney General's Department (how little
they told me), by and large, a lot of potential book bans will be
based on 'complaints by the public.' Following these complaints,
the Office of Film and Literature Classifications (OFLC) will do a
review of the book and potentially give it a Refused
Classification (RC). Hencefourth, making it illegal to import,
sell or purchase, and we are always going to be pending on public
scrutiny now and OFLC discretion over any book potentially being a
threat. Think about this. The OFLC, ASIO and Attorney General's
Dept can now set up fake 'public complaints' about any books they
themselves don't like. It can be played up in the media and then
taken off the shelf. They will have people working 'eight' days a
week, '25' hours a day on this.

In additon to the new act, they are looking at setting up an
internet filtering system next year, not only for child porn, but
a system that takes into account 'sedition' and the new 'material
that advocates terrorism' laws.. I kid you not. How much scope can
be used in websites under a banner of 'sedition' or 'advocating'
terrorist acts? Does that include activism, or even strategic
critique that may make someone 'angry' with the government? This
is downright creepy and there is not a whisper about this at the
moment in the media or the intellectual community. The internet
would be bought to a stifling halt to have such an advanced
filtering system. That may answer why we need such lightning speed
broadband, to take into account potential Chinese style filtering.

We can ask whether Labor (Pepsi Lite) will save us? We have the
extreme right faction of Labor and the razor just taking power
(excluding Julia Gillard). Kevin Rudd claims to be a staunch
Christian (aka the Australian Christian Lobby) with a bible on his
desk, and he talked a lot about 'family' in his winning speech.
This is no re-run of the centre-left Whitlam-Hawke-Keating era.
Furthermore, if we look at these industrial relations laws, the
counter terrorism laws, and the new adovating terrorism book laws,
I question how much they can be wound back as they have now been
enshrined into Australian domestic law, and in part, international
law. Furthermore, there is a one seat Liberal majority in the
senate until July 2008.

Looking at this from a broader strategic and geographical
perspective, it seems to further justify my argument that we are
increasingly shifting towards a 'Chinese style' model in
Australia, as part of the South East Asian block. Hence, low wages
with no protections, a police state and mammoth control of
information. This is a war on ideology and perceptions, and the
enshrined into Australian domestic law, and in part, internatio
any critique.. In addition, Rudd speaks Mandarin and knows China
well having traveled there regularly. The only real difference I
see with Labor and Liberal is a closer tilt towards China and Asia
in general under Labor (is that a good thing ironically?), and
less alliance with the U.S. Perhaps, there will also be more
protection of our social services under Labor.

If you read the exemption section of this link, especially section
3.28, that says it all about the new bill

www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/legcon_ctte/classification/report/c03.htm

[thingstocome]

That is truly frightening. Talk about a stranglehold on expression. We seriously need a bill of rights to be amended to the Constitution and brought fully into the consciousness of every citizen. At least it could help us defend our rights, before we get nicked for reading and thinking about supposedly unpopular ideas or books which support or incite "sedition" and "terrorism".
I think the whole system has to go, but in the mean time we should get behind a bill of rights.
No doubt it would see some of the recent legislation repealed/removed.

[Although, thinking about it, it could end up making the document stronger, so that people think if the whole thing is getting revised or changed that they will lose their rights - i.e. anarchy may propose to do away with the Constitution altogether and draft a new one and that may put some people off...]

The war on terror really is shaping up to be a war. And terror.

Good researching though, ProperTea...
ALP: Pepsi Lite
haha nice.

ttc

[spikeyred]

This is truly frightening. I have serious concerns that the next time we (Socialist Party) try to import books from our international we are gunna get censured and etc etc. This is fucked.
Revolution isn't terrorism.

[agentsaboteur]

Kinda reminds me of when The Bolsheviks banned distribution of Bakunin and kropotkins material after the communists took charge. Nice use of the word Terror thingstocome, and excellent research Propertea

[LiteraryPiano]

agentsaboteur said:

Kinda reminds me of when The Bolsheviks banned distribution of Bakunin and kropotkins material after the communists took charge. Nice use of the word Terror thingstocome, and excellent research Propertea

I didn't do the research.

[gabs]

Like the I.R. laws, Mr Williams
has told me that these terrorism book laws have been designed in
such a way that they can't be clearly understood.

More like South Australia's laws regarding weed,
noone knows what's going on!

So there's this and internet censorship, soon not only will we be on asio watchlists for looking at crimethinc and AK press(that is, if the filter doesn't just block them).. then we get charged for possessing the books we get off them.. yay?

Not just fitting the south east asian bloc, but global police state model itself.

At least we can dig RFID chips out of our arms with knives, and run away into the rainforests and start treetop communes

It's a worrying/depressing thought, but it's not like it isn't being met with mass resistance, which is even publicized(although scrutinized) by world media. I read some awesome recounts of anti-G8 actions in Rostock.. i was blown away. It's in the June 2007 issue of the Mutiny zine.

xx