Monday, June 7, 2004

Australia: Silencing Dissent - Report on NGO's

The Australia Institute's report on the role of NGOs is now available.

The report, titled "Silencing Dissent: Non-government organisations and Australian democracy", can be downloaded by going to 'What's New' on The Australia Institute website.

The report begins with an account of the important role played by NGOs in public debate in Australia. It also presents the results of a survey of 290 NGOs. They provide a disturbing picture of the limits on public debate in Australia: For example:

90 per cent of respondents believe that dissenting organisations and individuals risk having their government funding cut; 76 per cent do not believe that current Australian political culture encourages public debate; 74 per cent agree that NGOs are being pressured to amend their public statements to bring them into line with current government policy; and 92 per cent do not believe that individuals and organisations that dissent from current government policy are valued by the government as a part of a robust democracy;

We hope that the report stimulates a vigorous public debate about the role of NGOs and their relationship to government, and I encourage you to read the report and participate in that debate drawing on your own experience.

By Clive Hamilton posted 7 June 04

Dr Clive Hamilton Executive Director The Australia Institute Tel: (02) 6125 1270

Related:

Aust may host US military base
The United States is close to an agreement to build a major military base on Australian soil disguised as a training base. The US would spend tens of millions of dollars to upgrade one of Australia's existing training bases in Queensland or the Northern Territory.

Looming Hicks charges no surprise, father says
The father of Australian Guantanamo Bay detainee, [prisoner], David Hicks says it would be wrong for, [war criminal], Prime Minister John Howard to take any credit for speeding up the legal processing of his son.

Australia: Bringing up children can we afford it?
[War criminal], Peter Costello expects us to carry out our patriotic duty by going home and having more children. But for most people it is a struggle to bring up one child let alone two or three.

Australia: Private job network agency blues
Can you trust a private job network agency? No you can't! A friend of ours is registered at MTC Marrickville. This agency has a practice of forcing unemployed to fill out preparing for work agreements. Of course they didn't offer him any work! So why was he cut off the dole?

Greens call on Mark Latham to commit to ending Howard's abusive policies Greens Senator Kerry Nettle has called on Mark Latham to commit to abolishing the human rights abusing policies of the, [war criminal], Howard government if they win the next election.

Amnesty report criticises Aust, US
Amnesty International has accused Australia of using national security to justify the erosion of human rights and says the United States has proved "bankrupt of vision and bereft of principle" in its fight against terrorism and invasion of Iraq.

UN support for Iraq...conditions?
One of the most important acts that really needs to be done by the United Nations if it is to take over from the United States and Coalition Forces in Iraq, is to demand that ALL prisoners taken from the region, and from Afghanistan, be immediately placed into the hands of the international community (UN) and made available as soon as possible (if required upon further examination) to the International Criminal Court. This has to include Saddam Hussein. Not to do so would smack of further injustice.

Ruddock moves to give police access to emails
Police could get access to stored voicemails; emails and SMS messages under a Bill introduced to federal Parliament today.

The bone has been pointed at Howard
A Queensland Indigenous leader says an ancient Aboriginal curse placed on Prime Minister John Howard is no laughing matter and could even have deadly consequences.Suspended Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commissioner (ATSIC) chairman Geoff Clark was with a group of Aboriginal people who performed a ceremony known as pointing the bone at Howard at Colac in south-west Victoria this week.

O'Shane blasts constitution
Controversial New South Wales magistrate Pat O'shane has described the Australian Constitution as flawed and grossly inappropriate.

Demounting Auntie Isabel Coe
The information demountable and Auntie Isabel Coe's demountable were set alight at 3am last Saturday morning. The info demountable was completely destroyed- 31 years of photos and info on the grassroots Indigenous rights movement destroyed! Wilson Tukey (FUCKER)has wanted any excuse to get rid of the embassy for ages. This week he has been using the excuse that the burnt out shell is a danger to the community therefore the embassy must be removed.

HoWARd, where's your head at?
Australians is living on the edge! Seems each time the bombs go off overseas for the Coalition of the Killing's resource war's in the Middle East Australians are living on the edge.

JUDGEMENT: HOWARD'S WAR CRIMES
Howard Vs Regina in Canberra the Capital Territory of Australia- Friday January 30 2004. Would the defendant please stand while I read out the judgement of this court.

War criminals should be tried: Human Rights
The UN War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague should try George Bush, Tony Blair and John Howard for their part in the coalition of the killing for crimes against humanity.

Message of Solidarity: Greens
The Australian corrections system is appalling and rife with abuse of prisoner's rights. The spiralling numbers of those locked up, now over 23,000, is an indictment on a society which purports to be fair and democratic.

Brain injury for suspicion 'inhumane'
Faheem Khalid Lodhi refused bail by a Sydney court and remanded until June in hell at the (HARM-U) High Risk Management Unit at Goulburn. While he is in there he will receive a brain injury and is likely to self-harm due to the gross violation of living standards.

AUSTRALIA: RIOT ACT READ AGAINST INSPECTION TEAM
The secrecy of the unit holding several people charged with terrorist offences, [scapegoats for the Coalition of the Killing's resource war's in the Middle East], here in Australia was confirmed during an attempted community inspection by a delegation from Justice Action. The delegation comprised four women and two men.

QLD Politician (Community Safety?) Amendment Bill 2004
NEW LAWS: A picture of the [false flag] Madrid killer bombings was used to introduce a terror Bill so that we are so fearful we will accept it as being appropriate behaviour by the authorities and law enforcement. [So where is our protection against a corrupt government and complicit corporate media organisations?]

Dictatorship under the crimes Act?
[War criminal], Attorney General Phillip Ruddock said yesterday under the Crimes Act Izhar Ul Haque committed a crime. But the real crime was preventing a 21-year-old young man decide for himself what is wrong and what is right. What a disgrace! Under the heading, further education.

Report recommends freeing child detainees
The Human Rights Commission has found that some children held in Australia's immigration detention centres have been exposed to cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment.

Child detention breaches UN convention: human rights report
There are currently 86 children in detention in Australia and more than 70 on the Pacific Island of Nauru. The Federal Opposition, [as well as of at least half of Australia], has called on the Government to act on the report immediately.

Detention centre media ban criticised
The Howard Government has been criticised in a report by media freedom advocate Reporters Without Borders for stopping journalists covering the conditions in refugee detention centres.

Refugee protests expected to move to Sydney
Refugee advocates look set to protest in Sydney this Easter instead of the Baxter detention centre near Port Augusta in South Australia's north.

Zimbardo on US Soldiers and Iraqi prisoners
My former colleague in the Psychology Department at Pace University in Pleasantville, NY forwarded this letter to me. It was distributed via the Social Psychology e-network. I think you will find it enlightening, and possibly disturbing, but I believe it is important information for us to be aware of.

Steve Stefanowicz: Adelaides new torturer!
Is the U.S. citizen Steve Stefanowicz going to be allowed to resume his working entry visa to Australia, given the revelations in the Weekend Australian May 8-9?

Hicks interrogator features in CBS broadcast
An American television program has broadcast an interview with a man who interrogated Australian terror suspect, [scapegoat for the Coalition of the Killing's resource war's in the Middle East], David Hicks at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.