CJ,

You should come to NSW.

Did you miss APEC?

I still remember that guy being tackled to the ground and arrested in front of his 7yo child for crossing the street at the wrong place.

Or World Youth Day?

They wanted to pass a law where you could be fined $5500 for annoying pilgrims.

Anything that could possibly embarrass the government is grounds for deprivation of liberty of the populace. That, and the need to have an exclusive picnic with complete turf and cows on vital transport infrastructure.

Desmond,

When you get searched, how do you prove the officer didn't plant that bag of drugs they find in your top pocket?

Oooh how I love a 'nothing to hide'r.

I'll be round about 10 tonight to look through your wife's underwear drawer. Should be fun.

This is crazy.

Unless you can point to systemic human rights abuses in this country, why on earth would you want to introduce a whole new raft of laws?

For example, I know that there is dicussion in some quaters to define a fetus as human, which would outlaw abortions, etc.

Only the loony left and greens could benefit from the huge opportunity to block anything from happenning without their stamp of approval.

the American Bill of Rights didn't prevent the murder of thousands, sanctioned by Bush's puppet-masters (9/11 they call it) as a manufactured excuse to invade Afghanistan and Iraq.

Turn the TV off permanently, occasionally read a foreign newspaper with opposite political views to your own, embrace the scientific advances in knowledge over the last generation, read lots of history, and get a job with less responsibility than the one you got!

Instant Liberty.

Just leave the sad-case politicians to do the unpleasant job of relating to other politicians, it's quite easy, the only cost is one worthless vote.

I'm impressed that there are now so many people beginning to think for themselves.We need freedom of thought,since without it,we become slaves of Govt and the Corporates.

Pericles it would indeed be difficult to codify rights and responsibilities,but it could be done in general terms with some clever wording.

Yuyutsu I agree.I don't have time to answer to all posts but implore all of you to see this movie."Fall of the Republic" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VebOTc-7shU

Arjay
I totally agree with you that we need a libertarian movement here. Australians have forgotten what it means to live in a free country. I have been to military dictatorships where the people enjoy more personal liberty than we do in Australia. We have become a nation of intolerant, risk-averse, fussy-pants, constantly crying to government to fix anything and everything: superstitious worshippers of the state.

Pelican
What people mean by libertarian is that you should be free to do what you want, so long as you are not aggressing against or defrauding others.

Most everyone agrees with that, it's just that they don't count government as aggressing against or defrauding others. They should. Government is a legal monopoly on the use of force and threats: if you don't pay, or obey, men armed with weapons will come around to your place, physically grab hold of you, and lock you in a cage. And if you don't submit, they will shoot you. That's how they get their money.

Similarly, while fraud is against the law for private persons, and so it should be, there is no law stopping politicians from promising something to get voted in, and then breaking their promise. You can't sue them for damages. So both force and fraud are legal for government.

'But' you might say 'It's for the greater good.' Well that's the issue, isn't it? The question is, where to draw the line? The problem is that people want to use the government, to call the police, to enforce anything that is a matter of opinion, whether or not people are harming others. So for example, they will get a bee in their bonnet about childhood obesity, and decide that tuckshops are something government should be policing.

All
Here's a libertarian test for you: what area of life do you think government is *not* justified in controlling?