The problem with the Scott Parkin issue is, that even if the visa was canceled, he still did not commit any offence. At most, the Department of Immigration could have applied to a State Court in the State of Victoria to order his detention and deportation for failing to have a valid visa. It would then have been up to the court to make whatever order it deemed appropriate. The Australian Federal Police has no constitutional powers within a State legal jurisdiction and as such, as I view it, unlawfully imprisoned Scott Parkin and basically ‘kidnapped” him by moving him into detention.
This was the core problem with Vivian solon also, that the State ignored to apply DUE PROCESS OF LAW.
The court may very well have ordered time for Scott Parkin to contest the cancellation of his visa, and then the Federal government might have been exposed as to the real reason of the cancellation of his visa.

One must understand that if we allow this kind of abuse to be allowed, because we may perhaps not like a certain person, then likewise we can befall victim of the same tyranny!

Hansard 2-3-1898 Constitution Convention Debates
QUOTE
Mr. BARTON.-
It must be recollected that the ordinary rights of liberty and protection by the laws are not among the subjects confided to the Commonwealth. The administration of [start page 1766] the laws regarding property and personal liberty is still left with the states.
END QUOTE

Each time we allow the government to unduly intrude into our civil liberties, we loose our security more and more. In the end, we are turned into slaves, as whatever freedom you and I may have been willing to accept others may likewise held not to be allowed and so those freedoms are no more.

We must defend our civil liberties!

<The problem with the Scott Parkin issue is, that even if the visa was canceled, he still did not commit any offence.>

With all respect to the American expelled, are local teaching and participating in public protests parts of Australian tourist visa conditions?

You can't be serious! What world are you living in Christopher?
We have prominant muslim leaders such as Keysar Trad from the Lebanese muslim association, Waleed Aly from Melbourne Islamic council, and all of the representatives that were invited by
John Howard to the terrorism summit, all criticizing the government for not inviting lunatics like Sheik Omran from Melbourne or Sheik Zoud from Sydney, people who have openly praised Bin Laden, suicide bombers, and deny that muslims were behind the London attacks.
Sheik Hilaly is supposed to be the "Mufti" of Australia, and even he praised the 911 attacks while in Lebanon last year, he is on record for accusing Jews of ruling the world through sex. Keysar Trad, who represents muslims every week on television around the country, is on record in 2002 at UWS(see Greenleft weekly website for links) for asking all muslims to ignore discrimination laws and favor the Quaran so that we can set up Sharia courts to stone gays and adulterers to death.
The islamic books stores that were selling racist, anti-western, pro-terrorist literature were defended by all these muslim leaders on the grounds of freedom of speech. Sheik feiz from the Global Islamic Youth Centre in Liverpool said that women who wear shorts or show any "skin" deserve to be raped (is that because this is all he and is Talibani-Wahabi mates think about all day - some philosophy they have!), he has not been condemed by any muslims at all, not even women's groups have condemed him. Even Keysar Trad actually said that the comments were "out of Place". What place is there for such vile rubbish!
Besides, the recent terrorism stuff is merely the icing on the multicultural cake that is western Sydney, Bankstown, Cabramatta. It is a criminal, drug, gang thuggery haven. And the hoards of young middle-eastern and vietnamese thugs have been racially attacking poor white people and indiginous Australians for 20 years already. A bomb going off on a train or a bus is totally expected by anyone who lives with this!

Matthew, chill out. Tell you what, if there is a terrorist attack in Australia, I owe you a coke.

Handy hint: only around 1/5 of followers of the Islamic faith are Arabic. I know this wasn't explicitly mentioned but I get the feeling some people don't realise.

Peace

It's very interesting to see that the Government's simplistic campaign of fear (or shall I call it the 'war on witches') is actually achieving its objective. MatthewS and others equate 'Muslim' with 'terrorist'. If you pause one second though, you might come to the conclusion that those that speak out the loudest (such as Sheik Omran), are the least dangerous. It's the ones that don't speak out publicly that are much more dangerous. By deliberately criminalising free speech you actually push so-called radicals underground, and they're off ASIO's screen - adverse effect on 'security'.

It's unlikely that we'll see a major terrorism attack inside Australia in the near future. And even in the unlikely event we do, it's imperative to see things in perspective. 50-200 (even 3000) deaths, as tragic as they are, don't bring down a country. The real threat from terrorism comes from countertterrorism and corresponding creeping authoritarianism.

Terrorism has been around for 3000 years, and will be around for another 3000. There are many issues around, that should worry us much more. Unfortunately they ain't selling too many newspapers.

ps. I add another coke to spendocrat's

Mathew S. I don't understand either why Sheik Feiz gets away with saying those things about women in shorts deserving to be raped while John Brogden loses his job over mail order bride comments. Sorry,this is off the topic.