The people who work for our government agencies by and large are looking to protect our country. They feel they need additional powers to better protect us against the threat of islamic extremists.
Given the numbers of people going to participate in terrorist acts in Syria, there may well be valid reasons to request these powers. What makes this hard is that the data to show whether these laws are needed or not is highly classified and is unlikely to be shared with the public.
We as Australians should clearly debate whether the liberties we will lose are acceptable, even if they are only temporary.
For my perspective, I am perfectly happy to reverse the onus of proof on people who travel to known hotspots to demonstrate that they were not involved in terrorist activities.
But hyperbole and conspiracy theories do nothing to improve the level of debate, or even help advance your cause
No power like this is temporary, it becomes normal in short order and eventually considered as foolish to no have had long before... All built on a foundation of lies "temporary" only in name.
The people who work for our government agencies by and large are looking to protect our country. They feel they need additional powers to better protect us against the threat of islamic extremists.
Given the numbers of people going to participate in terrorist acts in Syria, there may well be valid reasons to request these powers. What makes this hard is that the data to show whether these laws are needed or not is highly classified and is unlikely to be shared with the public.
We as Australians should clearly debate whether the liberties we will lose are acceptable, even if they are only temporary.
For my perspective, I am perfectly happy to reverse the onus of proof on people who travel to known hotspots to demonstrate that they were not involved in terrorist activities.
But hyperbole and conspiracy theories do nothing to improve the level of debate, or even help advance your cause