The Wire

The Federal parliament will reopen tomorrow, and at the top of the Government’s agenda is further anti-terrorism legislation. This weekend, as the Coalition prepared to present its new bills before parliament – which if passed will join the 18 pieces of anti-terrorism legislation, enacted since September 2001 – a conference was taking place, which aimed to assess the impact of legislation already passed… in the name of the War on Terror. The conference “Manufacturing Fear”, held at the University of Technology, Sydney, encompassed a range of speakers who all expressed concern at the erosion of civil liberties… and the growing racism against Muslim Australians. Erica Vowles attended the conference and compiled a report, beginning with comments from Michael Head, who is a Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Western Sydney, and a member of the Australian editorial board of the World Socialist Website. She also spoke to Joo-Cheong Tham, Associate Lecturer at La Trobe Unversity; Tom Calma, Acting Race Discriminaytion Comissioner, HREOC; and Rafendi Djamin, human rights activist with the Indonesia Rights Working Group.