Friday 29th of March 2024

P.M. Funds National Terror Initiatives

Prime Minister John Howard today announced funding for a new counterterrorsm package.

The funding will support measures agreed upon between the Federal Government and the nations' State Premiers.

Following today's meeting of the Council of Australian Governments’ meeting (COAG) to discuss national counter-terrorism arrangements Mr Howard announced $40 million in additional funding for a range of measures "to deliver increased safety and security to all Australians."

These measures are in addition to the Government’s recent commitment of $200 million to further tighten security at Australia’s major airports

Initiatives announced yesterdayinclude:

  • $17.3 million over five years to establish an Australian Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Data Centre located within the Australian Federal Police (AFP);
  • $2.4 million over five years to support the establishment of a Chemical Warfare Agents Laboratory Network, which will provide a network of laboratories across Australia for the analysis of chemical agents;
  • $9.2 million over four years for the enhancement of Australia’s national counter-terrorism exercise regime - the enhanced programme will provide a greater focus on exercising Australia’s ability to manage mass casualty incidents, particularly in places such as major city precincts and transport hubs;
  • $1.3 million over four years to support the development of a national strategy to explain to the public, through a set of clear, concise messages, the arrangements set out in the National Counter-Terrorism Plan and improved, centralised communication with the media during a crisis;
  • $5.9 million in 2005-06 to support the development of a national action plan to build on the principles agreed at my recent meeting with Islamic community leaders and to undertake a range of related work including Muslim community liaison, community partnership projects, a national youth summit and leadership and media training;
  • $1 million over three years for Commonwealth aspects of the implementation of the National Counter-Terrorism Committee’s review of urban mass passenger surface transport security arrangements; and
  • $700,000 to assist Commonwealth participation in the National Counter-Terrorism Committee review of closed circuit television capability and development of a national code of practice.
  • Further, the COAG has agreed to establish a unified policing model at each of the 11 counter-terrorism first response (CTFR) airports including: an Airport Police Commander, a dedicated Joint Intelligence Group, a CTFR capability and a permanent community policing presence, and at each of the major international airports (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide), a Joint Airport Investigation Team.

The Australian Government has agreed to fully fund under the unified model a full-time community policing presence of AFP officers wearing AFP uniforms and under AFP command at all major Australian airports, with officers seconded or recruited from State and Territory police forces. The funding details for this initiative will be settled and announced shortly.

The COAG communiqué can be found at: www.coag.gov

Australian Lawyers Alliance president Richard Faulks told ABC News that the laws are totalitarian and un-Australian.

"Depending on what the final version is, I think it is a retrograde step, and one that we didn't need," Mr Faulks said.

"Australians value their freedom and even though everyone is concerned about terrorism and rightly so, there are steps that can be taken that are still consistent with proper safeguards which are part of our everyday life."

The union for the Australian Federal Police (AFP) has told the ABC that it does not have enough officers to take on the new airport security functions approved today.

Spokesman Jim Torr said that more than 600 employees have been redeployed to counter-terrorism functions since the September 11 terrorist attacks.

"The AFP has to grow proportionately to the scope of the increase of its role," he said.

South Australian Premier Mike Rann told the Financial Review he was confident the leaders would convince Mr Howard to include a sunset clause as part of the package. "I think that a sunset clause after 10 years would be a smart thing."

He said that terrorism was just another word for mass murder, and the new laws should reflect the seriousness of the crime.

unfinished business .....

Hi Richard.

I wonder if all this additional resource will help solve the mystery of the Hilton bombing, the Offset-Alpine fire or maybe even Harold Holt's strange disappearance?

still keeping us safe .....

from Crikey …..

Ghosts of COAG - the counter-terrorism review that vanished

Crikey Canberra correspondent Bernard Keane writes:

BRET WALKER, COAG, COUNTER TERRORISM, HOUSING, LEE RHIANNON

A key review of Australia’s counter-terrorism legislation, including state and territory laws, has been left in limbo by COAG nearly 18 months after it was scheduled to start.

The COAG review of counter-terrorism legislation was agreed under the Howard government in 2006 amid concerns about safeguards and possible abuse of counter-terrorism legislation. Commonwealth, state and territory leaders had held a special meeting on counter-terrorism in 2005 before the Howard government introduced draconian new laws that substantially curbed basic legal rights, with little time for Senate scrutiny. Then-ACT chief minister Jon Stanhope incurred the wrath of the government by releasing a copy of the draft laws.

The review is significant because it would examine not merely the hardline laws imposed by the Howard government and left in place by Labor, but state and territory counter-terrorism laws as well. The review was scheduled to start in December 2010 and be concluded by June last year. But has yet to commence.

In September, the Government told the Senate in response to a question from Greens Senator Scott Ludlam that "the Review will commence as soon as the arrangements have been agreed through COAG" and that "COAG needs to agree to the funding, terms of reference and membership of the Review Committee."

Friday’s COAG communique contained no mention of the review.

Greens senator Lee Rhiannon has pursued the issue with Commonwealth officials. In October, a senior Attorney-General’s official conceded that "it has drifted. We are all ready and set to go. I think it is just a question of when appointments etc will be settled."

One of the reasons claimed by A-Gs for the delay was "interaction with the legislation monitor". The Independent National Security Legislation Monitor -- currently Sydney barrister Bret Walker SC -- was established in 2011 to provide an ongoing review of Commonwealth legislation; Walker provided his first report, which primarily identified issues to be addressed later, in March.

But when asked about his involvement with the COAG review, Walker told an estimates hearing in February that he’d had no discussions with anyone about it.

Attorney-General’s had been fudging excuses for why the review hadn’t started, Rhiannon complained. "If Australia’s excessive counter-terrorism laws are not independently and regularly reviewed we run the risk that they become normalised and their principles creep into other areas of criminal law."

It adds to the decidedly cavalier approach A-Gs seems to adopt to explaining major national security issues to Senate committees. This reached ludicrous heights last year when ASIO directly and bluntly contradicted the rationale provided by the department for expanding ASIO’s powers.

But the intelligence review is by no means the first significant issue to go missing off the COAG agenda. In 2010, COAG agreed a large-scale series of reviews of housing supply and affordability to be conducted over the course of 2010 and the first half of 2011 with the last reports due by mid-2011.

The reports, if they’ve been done, have never seen the light of day, and since then, housing has vanished from the COAG agenda, as if it never existed. The only mention of housing has been recommendations to COAG about priorities in the National Affordable Housing Agreement. The only politician to mention housing since then has been Joe Hockey.

In the case of national security laws, it suggests politicians of both major parties like the draconian laws just how they are.