The attack on civil liberties of these workers and officials in new government laws giving powers to the ABCC which override Constitutional principles are documented in the film Australia’s Secret Industrial Inquisition – Constructing Fear by Joe Loh.

Case studies of those who’ve dared to speak out or have published research which is contrary to what the government wants regarding an issue have begun appearing.

Take the case of CSIRO scientist Prof. Graeme Pearman who with the Australian Climate Group report Climate Change Solutions for Australia publicly discussed the already critical effects of climate change on Australia and explained its effects on the environment, the economy, society and community health. (31)

Pearman was eventually forced out of his position by government pressure after being censored 6 times in a year from speaking about the negative effects of climate change. (31)

ABC’s Four Corners has shown that under pressure from the government, the leaders of CSIRO have tried to silence its scientists from talking to the public about their research on climate change. (31)

Frightened young students who demonstrated at the 2006 G20 conference have been subjected first to brutal manhandling, intimidation, threats and picked up by Federal anti-terrorism squads before the students were even told of what the charges against them were (as detailed in Quarterly Essay, Issue 26 2007 pp 33-38).

In another case, Alan Kessing, an ex-Customs officer was convicted in March under the Crimes Act for allegedly providing information to journalists about Sydney airport staff corruption and criminal links from a report he had done with his then Customs boss. (32)

The suppression by the government of information critical to the public interest, the punishment of those who dare to pass on such information to the public and the brutal suppression of those who openly protest against government policies are now standard fare in Australia. (33)

Pearman, the CSIRO, the G20 student demonstrators and Kessing are by no means isolated cases.

As Geoffrey Barker points out in Silencing Dissent, “The Coalition government won control of the Senate in 2005 and ordered public servants not to give evidence before Senates estimates hearings, one of the key national accountability mechanisms.” (34)

“Political advisers put pressure on public servants to shape, skew and manipulate advice to suit ministerial political agenda.”

As Barker points out this practice “makes it easier for governments to seek public support for policies on the basis of false and selective information” (from public servants who’ve been asked to skew the information) “that suits their political purposes.”

This is evident in the children overboard affair when as what is now widely accepted as an electoral stunt to win votes, the Howard government during the 2002 election campaign and Defence Minister Reith repeatedly declared that children had been thrown overboard from an illegal vessel of refugees off the northwest coast of WA. The incident was supposed to show that the government’s hardline position against refugees seeking political asylum in Australia was correct. (35)

In fact no such incident had occurred, the government was re-elected in 2002 and a Senate committee found that Minister Reith who had “refused three formal requests to give evidence” had “deceived the Australian people.” (36)

The Senate Committee was also critical of senior public servants and military officers involved in the flow of information at the time. (36)

In the military and intelligence services, those who have spoken up about controversial issues have been vilified by Howard and his government, if not forced out of their position. Former UN weapons inspector Rod Barton for instance went to the press and also wrote a book on how information on Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) in Iraq (and its absence) had been tampered with and how Iraqi prisoners were mistreated. (37)

Barton was marginalized and ridiculed by Howard himself. (37)

The pursuit of those who speak up against government policies and actions is coupled with the pursuit of those who could possibly be used to justify the government’s billions of dollars spent on expanding ASIO (Australian Security Intelligence Organisation) and Federal police powers at the expense of civil rights after the Liberal Coalition’s Senate majority allowed it to push through anti-terrorism laws without sufficient debate or community consultation. (38)

On Nov. 13, the government, ASIO and Federal Police’s case of terrorism charges against a young Sydney medical student Izhar Ul-Haque was defeated in the NSW Supreme Court (West Australian 13/11/07,p7).

Frighteningly, the ruling judge Justice Michael Adams called the behaviour of ASIO officers as criminal and “grossly improper.” The judge said two of the ASIO officers had committed the criminal offences of false imprisonment and kidnapping and that an unlawful trespass had been committed against the medical student’s parents by the intelligence officers. (39)

In an earlier case, terrorism charges by the government against Gold Coast doctor Mohamed Haneef were also defeated in court. (39)

In face of this continuing government assault on civil liberties and human rights of migrants, Australians, refugees, the cases of Australian Vivian Solon wrongfully shipped out of Australia and Cornelia Rau suffering a mental condition and wrongfully detained – both by Federal Immigration – seem almost iconic and distant already! (40)

5. Deterioriating press freedom : the public fails to be accurately informed

In addition, as all sectors of society are silenced, the press is one of the most important ones to control as it is able to reach everyone if it wishes to report on information critical to the public – even if David Peetz, Greame Pearman and the CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation), the G20 demonstrators, Allan Kessing and Barton might have already been silenced.

Reporters can now be jailed for 5 years for reporting about cases of those who are picked up because they are witnesses and suspects and then imprisoned without trial. (41)

In fact the government’s attack on press freedom has pushed Australia down to 35th place, behind many former Soviet Bloc countries, in the Press Freedom Index put together by Reporters sans Frontieres. (41)

There are now no laws which can protect reporters and journalists if they write and publish truthful stories which are critical of government and others. (41)