From the ABC,

Anti-terror laws needed for years into the future: PM
Prime Minister John Howard says Australia will be dealing with the threat of terrorism for many years to come and the Federal Government's new anti-terror laws are necessary.
Mr Howard is facing criticism that the bill gives authorities arbitrary and unrestricted powers after a draft copy of the legislation was posted on the Internet.

"I wish I could say it will be over in three years or two years or five years, I wish I could.
"I suspect it will go on with varying degrees of intensity for a number of years into the future."

GUSNEWS: The world has been dealing with terrorism since the year dot (at least 100,000 years of fighting and terrorism in human history), why create terrorizing laws the kind Hitler and Attila would be proud of, now when there are already plenty of laws that can deal with criminality? And The PM promises to cultivate these so they will last us for a very very long long time, don't you worry about that...
These laws will not stop terrorism. They won't even protect us... all they'd do is terrorise us...

Sheer lunacy and arrogance from this man of gloom and prickly pear policies. We should stop the aliens to the Australian spirit before they take hold and multiply.... Triffids!! Cane toads!!!

TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER

THE HON JOHN HOWARD MP

JOINT PRESS CONFERENCE WITH THE ATTORNEY GENERAL

THE HON PHILIP RUDDOCK MP

SYDNEY 

 

October 16, 2005. 

 

PRIME MINISTER:

’Well ladies and gentlemen, the Attorney-General and I have called this news conference to announce that the Government intends to double the size of ASIO by 2010.   

 

ASIO's current staffing level is 980.  It will rise to 1,860 by the financial year 2010-2011.   

 

This decision, taken against the background of the ongoing terrorist threat which is likely to be with us for some years into the future at the very least, flows out of the recommendation made to the Government by Mr Allan Taylor, a former senior member of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, a former Director-General of the Australian Security and Intelligence Service, a person well versed in security matters who carried out a detailed investigation into ASIO's resources and has recommended this increase.  And the Government has decided to accept the recommendation.

This doubling of ASIO's resources comes on top of the almost trebling in the financial commitment to ASIO which has occurred since the terrorist attacks in the United States on the 11th of September 2001.  It represents a determination by the Government to arm our security services with all of the resources they need.   

 

It remains the very strong view of the Government - it's a view I believe that is very strongly supported in the community, that the best weapon in the fight against terrorism is good intelligence.  It is one thing to have a capacity to respond effectively in the event of a terrorist attack, and the Attorney-General will be having something to say about that in the context of exercises that are planned over the coming week between the Commonwealth and the States, but it is entirely of another order to have the capacity to anticipate events, particularly as we now know that the threat of home-grown terrorism is very real.   

 

The London experience is instructive.  I have not forgotten the discussion I had with the British Prime Minister in July of this year when he spoke to me of his great pride in the capacity of the forces of the United Kingdom police and other services to respond effectively to the terrorist attack, but he then said if only we had known in advance.  In other words, nothing equals superior intelligence (emphasis added). 

 

Now I cannot guarantee through the investment of these additional resources that we are going to be able to anticipate every single terrorist threat to this country, but our doubling the size of ASIO, by investing the resources that experts tell us are needed, we will give ourselves a better chance, a fighting chance, of being able to deal with this very, very significant threat.  I just remind you that the Government has increased the Organisation's budget from $62.9 million in 2001 to $171.7 million in 2005-06 and this commitment will come on top of that trebling and it's a very, very significant commitment.  Obviously the training and recruitment of people will be very, very significant.  And it's a very, very significant investment and of course it's going to result in a massive increase in ASIO's budget.  The precise amount of that will be of course announced in the context of the budget next year, over the forward estimates period, but self-evidently we can see a very significant expansion in the financial commitment to ASIO.   

 

This is the augmentation, the increase, that the experts have recommended and we have accepted those recommendations in full.’ 

 

Meanwhile, far, far away, in another former outpost of ‘freedom & democracy’, the family of Jean Charles de Menezes, the Brazilian electrician murdered by British police, continued its calls for a full judicial inquiry. 

 

‘In the immediate aftermath of the murder of Jean Charles de Menezes, there was a systematic campaign of disinformation aimed at justifying the policy of summary execution. Although the police denied feeding false information to compliant sections of the media, many of the stories that circulated could only have come from official sources. 

 

It was claimed that de Menezes had been identified leaving the house of a suspected terrorist, wearing an unseasonably heavy overcoat. On his arrival at Stockwell Underground rail station, he supposedly vaulted the ticket barrier and attempted to flee police. Police identified themselves and shot him because of fears that he was carrying a bomb. Some witnesses claimed to have seen wires sticking out of his clothes. 

 

All of these stories were proved to be lies. 

 

In fact, de Menezes had left his communal block of flats wearing a denim jacket. He took a 20-minute bus ride to the station, where he picked up a free paper and entered by using his season ticket. He went slowly down the escalator. At no point did he run from police, because the officers were in plain clothes and never identified themselves. He was not even aware that he was being followed. When he reached the platform he entered the train and sat down. At this point he was shot seven times in the head, and once in the shoulder, at point-blank range with no prior warning. Three other shots missed.’ 

 

Britain: De Menezes Family Demands Justice In Police Murder