NSW Premier Bob Carr's enthusiasm for vilifying protesters, police patrols with sniffer dogs and cooperating with Australia's secret police service is not an aberration for the ALP. Federal Labor is also bending over backwards to increase police powers.
According to Annabel Crab, writing in the November 19 Melbourne Age, "senior Labor sources" said the party was willing to strike a deal with the federal government on the proposed Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) amendment bill.
Federal Labor's home affairs spokesperson, John Faulkner, has drafted a "private" proposal that offers a compromise to the government. The compromise would still allow Australians to be detained and questioned at ASIO's behest for an unspecified period, even if they were not accused or suspected of being involved with a planned act of terrorism. Questioning would be carried out by the Australian Federal Police (AFP), instead of ASIO, detainees would have access to a lawyer and children under 18 would be exempted.
It is believed that Faulkner's proposal, drafted with the help of "left" MP Daryl Melham, former leader Kim Beazley and Senator Robert Ray, will be adopted by caucus.
Faulkner has denied that Labor's new position is a backdown. "We're saying that rather than making ASIO into a secret police force, the questioning should be carried out — in our suggestion, by the AFP, but in any event in a regulated environment — and, unlike the government, we're also saying that children shouldn't be questioned under the bill."
This sell-out comes after many Labor leaders waxed lyrical a few months ago about Labor's responsibility to "defend the freedoms terrorists try to take away", and opposed detention without trial.
Labor is also considering supporting a massive boost to "defence" spending, reinforcing the military's role in the Asia-Pacific region. It appears some freedoms, such as the "right" to exploit workers in the Asia-Pacific region, are more worth defending than the right to dissent.
The ALP has enthusiastically supported the ASIO raids on the homes of people whose only crime was to attend religious meetings. During those raids, guns were put to the heads of children. On November 11, Crean endorsed the "way they were carried out".
Since the Cunningham by-election, the newspapers have been full of discussion about the "leadership crisis" of the ALP. But what Labor faces is not a leadership crisis, but a crisis of politics. On the burning issues of the day — the war on Iraq, refugees' right to live in safety, protection of the right to demonstrate and religious freedom — the ALP has failed to distinguish itself from the Prime Minister John Howard's government. That is because it does not fundamentally disagree with it.
Nit-picking about process does not equal opposing the war on Iraq and the mass slaughter it will cause. Federal Labor leader Simon Crean has consistently indicated that Labor supports the US-sponsored UN push to place impossible conditions on Iraq — the ALP will support an attack on Iraq when the time comes.
On refugee policy, the ALP has just shut down its policy committee, which had a minority representation from Labor for Refugees. Well aware that most ALP members oppose the party's support for locking asylum seekers up, Labor's leadership will not even allow a cursory discussion about the policy behind closed doors.
And now, after already supporting the first "anti-terrorist" package of legislation, which could be used to persecute protesters, particularly solidarity activists with struggles in Third World countries such as Colombia, Palestine and Indonesia, the Labor Party has thrown its support behind more secret police powers.
Australia desperately needs an alternative to the economic rationalist, racist and anti-democratic two-party duopoly. It is clearer than ever that this will not be found inside the ALP. If there are still decent, hopeful activists in the ALP, now would be a good time to leave and join the Socialist Alliance.
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, November 27, 2002.
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