The Argument Against Adequate Counter-Terror Laws In Australia

Adequate counter-terror legislation is required to repel such attacks and as such more powers are to be afforded to law enforcement agencies to appropriately seek out terrorists and remove them from society, hopefully permanently. The problem with this is that the more power that is afforded to law enforcement agencies to repel such attacks, the more eroded the rights and freedoms of those who are innocent to these crimes can become. This is the trade-off in question and there is a need for adequate amendments to legislation to both protect society from terrorism as well as protect the freedoms that form the moral fabric of our nation. The current counter-terror laws in Australia do not provide enough protection to vulnerable professions such as the media, and amendments to the legislation are required so that these protections can be …show more content…
Governments primarily justify the use of their counter-terror powers by asserting that innocent people will remain safe following the stance of Goebbels “you have nothing to fear, if you have nothing to hide” (Goebbels. 1933). There are enough instances where innocent people have been detailed, tortured or even killed for being in the wrong place at the wrong time and hanging out with the wrong crowd so affording people with less rights could result in more cases of this happening. Moreover, “Australia does not have domestic human rights legislation capable of guarding against undue limits being placed upon the rights and freedoms of individuals” (Scheinin 2006: 5) and could therefore leave innocent people exposed to undue