Yesterday, in an op-ed for Fairfax, former Howard government minister Amanda Vanstone took aim at the Abbott government over its proposal to hand the Immigration Minister the power to strip Australians of their citizenship.
Vanstone has been a consistent critic of the over-the-top nature of our response to terrorism, even when she was a minister, famously mocking the imposition of plastic cutlery on aircraft.
But her criticisms of the Abbott government go much deeper, to the very ideology that motivates Abbott:
“One of the main reasons I am a Liberal is the commitment to individual rights. So you can imagine my profound disappointment, bordering on despair, when I see some on ‘my team’ thinking it is OK for a minister alone to take away a citizen’s rights — indeed, take away citizenship — in the blink of an eye. No appeal, no judicial process, just a ministerial decision. What were they thinking?”
With those words, Vanstone nailed the gulf between the classic liberal position, which is that governments should not have unfettered authority to harm the individual and that executive power must be checked by other arms of government, and the position of the Abbott government, which is that any criticism or questioning of unfettered powers is tantamount to supporting terrorism.
Ironically, Human Rights Commission president Gillian Triggs is being attacked by a Liberal government while articulating exactly the same concerns about unfettered executive power and the need for checks and balances.
Nor is this a concern shared only by small-L Liberals like Vanstone or Malcolm Turnbull. The government’s proposal to strip anyone deemed somehow connected to terrorism of their citizenship attracted concern from ministers such as Barnaby Joyce and Kevin Andrews as well.
To the extent that the Liberal Party is a mix of both conservatives and liberals, Tony Abbott’s abandonment of a key tenet of liberalism marks a significant milestone. In one of the most crucial ways, Abbott’s Liberal party is no longer worthy of the name.
No wonder figures like Vanstone despair.
I must have missed the news.
I thought that Julie Bishop, Barnaby Joyce, Kevin Andrews, Malcolm Turnbull and George Brandis were part of the government.
I have not seen any policy announced by the government for the minister of immigration to have unfettered powers to strip someone of their citizenship.
I have seen a leak of such a proposal in cabinet that got shot down almost immediately by members of the government.
Maybe it’s the Liberal Party in more than just name only.
Governmental stripping away of Australian values continues. Vanstone’s concerns are but the latest. The valiant Human Rights Commission President another. Yes, Australians are under attack, but it is not on the streets we need fear. Rather those who employ governmental powers that strip away our Parliamentary, Judicial, citizen rights, protocols, values and accountabilities that erode our democratic traditions.
There are neo-cons who believe that the Democratic Experiment has served its purpose and that power should be returned to the aristocratic and corporate institutions.
We see them show their hand (not the invisible one) occasionally.
If the Amanda penny has dropped, is the Liberal pound far behind?
Or is the Liberal pound positioning itself to rule in perpetuity?
As much as ianjohnno contribution sounds like a conspiracy theory, and only a few years ago I might have laughed it off, it would seem to be the best explanation of current events.
If the right weren’t so incipiently dull people, I would start to wonder if they weren’t evil geniuses?
At the moment, they qualify for the evil part only.