Bartlett's Blog

As the speech itself acknowledges, a single speech can't resolve things.  But it is impossible to overstate how significant it would be if the vision President Obama expresses and aspires to in this speech is successful.  The text of the speech is here, or here for translations into 14 other languages.  It is worth taking the time to listen to and watch as well.

The focus on Barack Obama as the person of the moment, and the politician that grabbed the globes imagination throughout 2008 caused me to reflect in this post on other politicians who overcame even higher odds at greater personal costs in 2008.  But it also important to continually remember that there are many other people around the world who show even greater perseverance and courage. Many of them ...

This week saw the fortieth anniversary of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). One thing that has often perplexed me is how much the public anxiety about the proliferation of nuclear and other armaments has diminished over the last twenty years. The end of the Cold War could explain some of it, but given the repeated references by various political leaders to the threat of terrorism, a ‘War on Terror’, rogue ...

Yet again, a case which received a blaze of publicity over two years ago, adding to unrealistic fear and alarm about Muslims in Australia, has failed when it finally comes to trail - and providing Australia’s Muslims yet another reason to feel less secure and less trusting of our government and law enforcement agencies. Even more worryingly, the judge in the case condemned the conduct of ASIO officers as ...

Dr Mohammed Haneef was given bail this morning on a $10 000 surety, with a requirement he report to police 3 times a week and that he not leave the country. I attended the court for the handing down of the Magistrate’s decision. It should be noted that, had the federal government had their way, this man would be imprisoned for the duration of what could well be ...

News has come through that after being held in custody for nearly two weeks, Gold Coast based Doctor, Mohammed Hanef has now been charged. According to this report,“he has been charged with recklessly supplying a mobile phone sim card to a terrorist organisation.” The offence carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison (originally reported as 25 years). Of course, it will take a long time for the case against ...

Late last year, a security cooperation agreement between Australia and the Republic of Indonesia was signed on the Indonesian island of Lombok. As with all international agreements, this one, which has already picked up the colloquial title of the Lombok Agreement, is being examined by the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties. The Committee is still receiving submissions. You can read the ones which have been made public to ...

The case of a Canadian citizen, Maher Arar, who was secretly sent by the USA government to Syria where he was “interrogated, tortured and held in degrading and inhumane conditions for 10 months after being falsely accused of terrorist ties” has not received a great deal of coverage in the Australian media. However, it is a fair bet that many Muslim Australians are very aware of this case. ...

A follow up to my previous post about the review of sedition laws – as noted in one of the comments on that piece, some people see community concern about the sedition laws as just a beat-up by paranoid anti-government left-wingers. Whilst there's certainly been some exaggeration and misunderstanding about what the laws entail and how they could be applied, my key concern is the danger of embedding ...

The debate about sedition laws was featured on my old blog in November last year. Readers may remember that the Senate Committee that examined the legislation recommended that the section updating sedition provisions be deleted from the latest 'anti-terror' laws being rushed through Parliament. The government didn't agree with that recommendation and used their Senate majority to ensure the law passed with the sedition provisions retained. ...

There are retrospectives and introspectives all over the internet and the mainstream media marking the fifth anniversary of the attacks on New York’s World Trade Centre. The Open Democracy site has a good series of pieces asking a range of people the simple question – “what have we learned”?

Last night I attended the formal premiere of a theatrical production called "Honour Bound", which deals with David Hicks' incarceration in Guantanamo Bay. The show is running for the next 5 weeks at the Sydney Opera House. The show was certainly interesting and thought-provoking. It goes for just over an hour, painting a picture through visuals, voiceovers and dance.

I always find it interesting to discover historical debates that resonate – and often help illuminate – with the debates of today. I discovered an example of this in a fascinating piece in this week’s New York Times that gives an insight into the use of sedition laws in the past.

I mentioned the Regulations and Ordinances Committee once in an earlier post. This is one of the more low profile Senate Committees, which in some ways adds to its effectiveness. It looks at all the regulations and other disallowable instruments tabled by the government, of which there are more than 1500 each year. It examines the technical adequacy of Regulations and their adherence to basic principles such ...

A report in the Sydney Morning Herald may finally increase the pressure on the Australian government about how willing it has been to turn a blind eye to the use of torture by our ally in the so-called ‘war on terror’.

Google searches, library requests, emails, SMS, car trips, voice messages, phone conversations, etc can all be mointored and recorded. Does it make us safer? There has been a lot of commentary (such as at Road to Surfdom, the Currency Lad and Larvatus Prodeo) on the recent revelation that US President George Bush authorised widespread secret surveillance and communications intercepts on US citizens (not to mention many others). ...

The Senate started sitting at 12.30pm today, with debate starting on the terror legislation. The speakers list on the Bill circulated by the Government Whip's office had 28 Senators listed as wanting to speak. This initial list included 8 Liberal Senators. This is quite a large number of government Senators to speak on one Bill. The list also included all 8 Democrat and Green ...

The government has released their draft Senate legislation program for next week. It shows just one day – Monday - set aside for the debate on the terror legislation, with only the Tuesday to deal with the welfare changes. The final 3 sitting days have 15 other pieces of legislation listed, including the VSU Bill and the Northern Territory radioactive waste Bill.

The Senate Committee report into the terror law that was tabled today provides a very good example of how valuable it can be when a few government Senators show sufficient courage to actually admit to and point out significant flaws in a piece of legislation. On this occasion, the Government (and non-government) Senators recommended over 50 changes that should be made. Margot Kingston's site provides some good ...

This weekend I am working on my contribution to the Senate Committee report into the government's welfare changes, as well as examining the details of the planned Terror law. The Committee reports into the welfare package and the terror measures will both be tabled in the Senate on Monday afternoon (sometime after 3.30pm). These will give an insight into the potential for any further amendments to ...