http://smh.com.au/articles/2002/11/19/1037599412648.html
Police will have the power to search without a warrant and without
reasonable suspicion under proposed new terrorism laws released by the NSW
Premier Bob Carr today.
"Police only exercise these powers in the wake of a credible threat or a
terrorist strike and even then they would need to be renewed - in the case
of a terrorist strike after 48 hours," said Premier Bob Carr at Parliament
House today.
"The increased police powers mainly involve the power to search. I would
argue they are entirely reasonable given the kind of threat that post-Bali
we face."
Mr Carr said while there would be no change to the police's powers of
detention the laws give police "the power to [search] without relating it
to a reasonable suspicion. That was the power they enjoyed during the
Olympics."
The powers could be invoked by police with the authorisation of the police
minister and would last for up to seven days before a terrorist threat or
for 48 hours after a terrorist incident.
The police minister Michael Costa said in a terrorist incident involving a
large van, such as the Oklahoma bombing, police would have the power to
search all large vans without a warrant.
"If that's the information that has been received - that a large van is
likely to be used on a particular terrorist attack- they could for a period
of seven days before or 48 hours after the event have those powers of search.
"Under normal circumstances they would only be able to search the vehicle
if they had reasonable suspicion of that specific vehicle."
The power to search without a ``reasonable suspicion'' would apply to
persons, homes and cars in an area that police believe has been targeted
for attack.
Under the new law, police could release descriptions, photographs or
identikits to identify people, cars or areas suspected of planning an attack.
Police could then search anyone or anything who appears to match the
description.
Mr Costa said descriptions such as "anyone who attended a religious lecture
carried out by a particular person" or "of middle eastern appearance" would
not be sufficient to permit widespread searches.
"It would have to go further in the detailing of that person. It may well
be 'a Middle Eastern person with a beard and identification scarring."
"The powers are extensive but triggered by information that there will be a
likely terrorist attack by an individual person or vehicle."
The new Terrorism (Police Powers) Bill will have its second reading in
parliament today.
AND
Privacy debate over military access to student data
Students and privacy rights activists fear a provision in President Bush's
No Child Left Behind Act that guarantees the military access to public and
private school students' names, phone numbers and addresses. Milford Daily
News
http://www.milforddailynews.com/news/local_regional/studentinfo11172002.htm
Sent: Monday, 26 August 2002 12:21 PM
To: Link
Subject: [LINK] Cyber censor to watch out for students' bad language
http://www.smh.com.au/text/articles/2002/08/25/1030053009698.htm
Extracted item provided for information.
<snip>
When NSW's 1.33 million public school and TAFE students and teachers log on
to their new "e-learning accounts" they will find every keyboard stroke
monitored to ban bad language.
"Sex" will be out as will the "wildcards" favoured by students who use
asterisks or question marks to disguise swear words.
</snip>
So - "sex" is now "bad language". Words fail me.
Fred
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For Link list information see http://sunsite.anu.edu.au/link/
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For Link list information see http://sunsite.anu.edu.au/link/
