"The laws that erode who we are"

Professor George Williams writes on how Australia's anti-terrorism laws restrict democratic freedoms and would never have been allowed to pass in the US (Sydney Morning Herald, September 10, 2011). See summary below:

Australia responded to September 11, 2001, with an extraordinary burst of law-making. In the ensuing decade, the Federal Parliament enacted 54 pieces of anti-terrorism legislation; 48 of these were passed under the Howard government, an average of one new anti-terrorism law every seven weeks.

The numbers are striking. A study by Canadian Professor Kent Roach found that ''Australia has exceeded the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada in the sheer number of new anti-terrorism laws that it has enacted since September 11, 2001. Australia's hyper-legislation strained the ability of the parliamentary opposition and civil society to keep up, let alone provide effective opposition to, the relentless legislative output.

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