from time to time, i mention that oz is drifting into fascism, that '1984' has only been delayed even though newspeak has become the national language.

in the smh today, on page forty-eleven with small caps, the coy announcement that the iemma government has authorized the police to institute surveillance of anyone for 5 days without troubling a judge.

another step, with the 'anti-terrorism' laws, towards government control. failure to put this notice on the front page over the 'may be a rate rise in november' story shows how concerned the press is about freedom.

i expect supine acceptance of this further incursion by the government into the freedom of the paddock which oz sheep have been accustomed to. it could hardly be otherwise. unlike the frog in the soup pot, ozzians are just too dim to jump.

Even before today's Iemma proclaimation, the Police Commissioner indicated that he would ignore a High Court ruling over where protesters could go during APEC. The Court did agree with the police. Just the same, the Premier should have kicked the Commissioner so hard in the rear-end, the State's senior police office should now be orbiting Jupiter.

Judicial oversight is a must given the nature of politicians and the police.

Democracy is precious and we can't let a few power hungry opportunist wreck it

DEMOS whats the problem? It makes it easier to get more evidence on crims! Instead of having to jump through burning hoops to get evidence against them.

I think its an excellent move and a step in the right direction!

Be careful with what we are willing to give up... The loss may be
far greater then we realize and once given up - we may never get it back...People died so that we could have certain freedoms, rights, and privileges - let's not give these up so easily or go quietly into the night...

1984 really commences when they try to E-tag everyone. This in Revelation 13:16-18/14:9-11 is commonly called the mark of the beast...the beast being the coming (final) great world dictator. Many believe he is alive today. Already the microchip on either the right hand or forhead is getting a subtle mention. I hear even the Australian banks are part of it. They certainly have knowledge of it. But you dont have to take it. Hundreds of millions of christians will refuse and rely upon The Lord each day for Provision.

Dear Gibo,

The Lord helps those who help themselves ...

EasyTimes, you can’t think that ‘surveillance of anyone for 5 days without troubling a judge’ is not a problem. It’s one thing to make it easier to catch criminals but another to invade the freedom and privacy of innocent individuals. This is akin to taking guns from licensed, law-abiding sporting shooters in the laughable hope that it will somehow reduce gun-related crimes by criminals who are unlicensed.

As Demos wrote, most Aussies are sheep-like (is that why the Kiwis come over here?) and will go along with what the ‘nanny state’ wants for their ‘safety’.

While calling this Fascism, the other extreme, Communism, would do exactly the same. Stalin wasn’t a great fan of personal freedoms either.

The Australian people are nurtured from a young age to be pro-federalist, pro-big government by the government. As we can see happening, this trust or blind faith that is cultivated can be abused by authoritarian politicians who want to take away freedoms, piece by subtle piece. Government elements (for example police forces) then advise each other on policy and the government complies. How could it ever be found to disagree with itself? So it becomes more and more authoritarian and bloated.

As for this particular law, it seems the media is merely proving how incompetent or corrupted it is. If printed on the front page I'm sure the news would have been a paper-seller. Why hide away something that could sell your paper? You could even hold it and make it front page the next day. And here is the problem of letting one or two entities own all the media sources rather than promoting competition: You have a single, homogenised stream of news, without any variation in perspectives or message. It doesn't matter what paper you read. You see the same news by the same writers, organised by editors who share a common employer.

Gibo:

The "mark of the beast" was [Hebrew?] code of the Roman Emperors.
The oldest known record of the verse, a fragment of an early manuscript of Revelation from the Oxyrhynchus site, Papyrus 115, gives a different number, 616. Nero was later to become 666, and it has been carried forward since then.

Cheers,

O.

$1000 for loaning a disabled sticker from your car, $400 for lighting up a ciggie on a railway platform; a hotline for dobbing on your neighbours kids for playing under a hose on a stinking hot day, and another for 'illegally' parking in a Disabled parking place. $250 for breaking into someone elses car.

5 days free surveillance by our protectors, freed from accountability.

We Shire folk are about to enter Lockdown season again, where the police will be charged once again with with the responsibility of missing the crims. and harassing the residents with virtual roadblocks, intrusive vehicle searches, demanding to know where we are going and general intimidation.

Morris Iemma is an idiot. Makes Howard look like an anarchist(maybe not).

Gibo, thousands of people over the last 2000-odd years have believed that the antichrist is alive in their day and time. Just because you are one of the ones today, doesnt make it so.