Citizen Journalist Dale Mills [0] specialises in police powers, especially in NSW but also, as in this piece, in the Commonwealth. His last piece for Webdiary was Australian police to use tasers [0]. There doesn't seem any real time to make a public fuss about it, but I think the mainstream media has failed us in not informing us at all about the Defence Legislation Amendment (Aid to Civilian Authorities) Bill 2005, with its very serious implications. Thanks Dale, and please keep up the good work.

by Dale Mills

Receiving almost no corporate media coverage, a Senate committee recommended on January 31 the passage of a bill that will make it easier for the Australian Defence Force (ADF) to police and shoot civilians. The powers go well beyond dealing with a terrorist threat and in important respects put the military above state criminal laws.

Some powers were given to the ADF to intervene in public order management in the lead-up to the 2000 Sydney Olympics, however, the new Defence Legislation Amendment (Aid to Civilian Authorities) Bill 2005 proposes:

• to make it easier for the ADF to be called out where there is a threat to any “designated infrastructure”;
• expanded “shoot-to-kill” powers such that civilians could be shot for the protection of property from “damage or disruption”;
• a “following orders” defence for soldiers who shoot civilians;
• to give the prime minister alone the power to authorise troop call-outs where a “sudden and extraordinary emergency exists”;
• that individual soldiers be given the power to police civilians, including requiring people to answer questions or produce documents;
• no need to notify the public that troops have been called out; and
• that soldiers may operate without the need to wear a name tag.

Under the proposed legislation, the federal government may use the ADF to protect “Commonwealth interests” even if the state or territory concerned opposes it. The new powers operate where there is “domestic violence”, as vague as that phrase is.

Furthermore, the ADF may:

• shoot fleeing civilians evading detention (something not available to the ordinary police);
• detain people without arresting them; and
• search premises, people and vehicles without warrants (thus avoiding judicial scrutiny).

A particular concern is that the proposed laws do not require the public release of army manuals in relation to ADF rules of engagement with civilians. One submission to the parliamentary committee reviewing the laws pointed out that Greens Senator Bob Brown had previously read out extracts from the 1983 Australian Army Manual of Land Warfare, leaked to the press in 1993, with particular reference to section 543.

This section instructs military personnel to adopt courses of conduct that seem designed to cover up the killing or wounding of “dissidents”. It states, in part: “Dead and wounded dissidents, if identifiable, must be removed immediately by the police ... When being reported, dissident and own casualties are categorised merely as dead or wounded. To inhibit propaganda exploitation by the dissidents the cause of the casualties (for example, 'shot’) is not reported. A follow-up operation should be carried out to maintain the momentum of the dispersing crowd.”

The Bill is expected to become law in late February.

The bill can be found at the Parliament of Australia website [1])