Of course, we can trust John Howard, can't we? Would the 'never, ever' man lie to us? Trudy The Sydney Morning Herald Defence bill is benign: Howard Date: 23/08/2000 By TONI O'LOUGHLIN in Canberra The Prime Minister yesterday insisted the defence forces could not be "called out" to control civil disturbances under plans to give the military new powers to quell "domestic violence". Mr Howard said the proposed laws were "primarily aimed at terrorism", not political protests, as Australian Greens Senator Bob Brown, the Democrats, civil libertarians and unions have claimed. "Of course it's not aimed at civil disobedience," Mr Howard told Brisbane radio. The convention of only using defence forces in peacetime for extreme emergencies would ensure the proposed laws would not be used to break strikes or protests, Mr Howard said. "We have this long tradition that you only use the Army in a terrorist situation. I mean the idea of ever using the Army in an ordinary civilian disturbance situation is anathema to me," he said. "I'm sure it's anathema to [Labor's leader] Mr Beazley," who supports the proposed laws, Mr Howard said. Asked if the laws could be used against protesters if an extremist government were elected in the future, Mr Howard said: "I don't think Australians will ever ... lose their commonsense as to elect stupid people." A spokesman for Senator Brown welcomed the Prime Minister's assurances. "It's new hope for us that we can get an amendment up that would prevent troops from being used on peaceful protesters," he said. Senator Brown argues that defence forces could be used against protesters because the bill does not define the meaning of "domestic violence". The Defence Legislation Amendment (Aid to the Civilian Authorities) Bill 2000 will give the defence forces powers to search and detain people, seize property and use "reasonable force" if the Federal or State governments considered the police force incapable of controlling an outbreak of "domestic violence" or where the Commonwealth's interests were threatened. This material is subject to copyright and any unauthorised use, copying or mirroring is prohibited. -- ********************************** 'Click' to protect the rainforest: Make the Rainforest Site your homepage! http://www.therainforestsite.com/ ********************************** ------------------------------------------------------ RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 and is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/ To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." RecOzNet2 is archived for members @ http://www.mail-archive.com/recoznet2%40paradigm4.com.au/
