There has been a curious quiet around the arrival of the Defence Legislation Amendment (Enhancement of Defence Force Response to Emergencies) Bill 2020. On the face of it the bill, which got a little coverage upon its announcement, aims to regulate the call out of defence forces in response to natural disasters. But some concerning details — and an even more concerning absence of details — have emerged.
As lawyer and activist Kellie Trantor points out:
This bill fails to properly define ‘other emergencies’, delegates too much responsibility for the call out to a single minister, permits foreign armies and police forces to be called in, does not restrict the use of force for defence forces and extends an unreasonable level of immunity for the defence force from criminal and civil penalties.
Despite some noise along similar lines from Labor’s Kim Carr, we’re struggling to see any other mainstream coverage of this potentially huge expansion of ministerial powers.
Given, say, The Australian‘s (completely justified) concern over the Victorian government’s similar expansion of powers under the cover of COVID-19, the silence is rather surprising.
Oh come on, Charlie, you can’t say you’re surprised at the hypocrisy of the Murdoch press. Surely this is bog standard behaviour from them? The reptiles at The Australian only express concern about government overreach when it’s a Labor government.
Can we just be real for a moment?
People who join police or military are, by definition, not well grounded and unsuitable to mix with the community.
Not that long ago, the expression “he’s gone for a soldier” was uttered with the same sorrow & regret that might be used for a fallen woman.
The US Constitution specifically rejected the idea of having a standing army for the very sound reason of having seen what happens when the powerful have a monopoly on violence.
We’ve already seen the eager overreach and outright abysmal behaviour of jumped up cops going nutz with the C19 powers.
If the Kellie Trantor quote is even half accurate we should be afraid.
Very afraid.
.
A more idiotic statement than yours cuch hasn’t been uttered in a very long time, and in the era of Trump that is saying something.
Drank the Rodent’s Kool-Aid re Gallipoli did you?
The next step is “Blut & Erde” from the FOWF brigade.
Tell us more, S Arthur. I couldn’t find much to fault it.
“Permits foreign armies and police forces…”
Seriously? Seriously!
This is what gets me about the Dan Andrews lockdown measures and the petty complaining about his ‘socialist govt hellbent on destroying our freedoms’ crowd. They appear happy to demonstrate against DA, but seem to supinely let the federal LNP have us spied upon, subject to extraordinary rendition, basically legalising kidnapping for quite extraordinary periods of time with little to no oversight, completely trample on any press freedoms, commence facial recognition programmes by police depts and no doubt security agencies, send spies overseas to listen in on commercial negotiation of treaties and vast other ways of basically having every citizen under its thumb, because, terrorists, and have managed all this information and ludicrous powers without anyone checking on what information they have on private citizens.
The cognitive dissonance does my head in, but not these happy clapper evangelists of freedom, or that dumb journalist whose name I shall not darken your doors with.
rather than calling in the military, wouldn’t a Federal Emergency Services style organisation be better? – one that is dedicated to and trained for all kinds of natural and civil disasters – using a mix of full-time and volunteer people for “on the scene” deployment – an organisation where civic-minded people of a certain type can join and contribute, WITHOUT the risk of being sent overseas to kill people so that politicians can get there photo op … sure this may draw some people away from the military and the police, but that can only be a good thing
Sounds like a much better idea. Defence Forces are created to protect from an external enemy and that is what their role should stay.
Historically untrue. Throughout most of the last few thousand years, soldiers have defended the ruling class from the rest of the country and fought civil wars, with foreign wars being a secondary role. They have, with very good reason, been hated and feared by ordinary people. The only time in history when soldiers have been well regarded in their own countries is the 20th C, due to the successful efforts to promote nationalism during two world wars.
And domestically police exist to stop the poor eating the rich.
But the federal government is in Rupert’s pocket. Victoria, not so much.