A Law that you'd expect in Tyrannical Countries....a betrayal of trust

Here's something that was on the general "aus.tv" newsgroup. Not really tv related, still the news has given quite some coverage to the Govt's new proposed so called "anti-terror" laws including their "shoot to kill" clause. The link provided to the newspaper site didn't work when I tried it, but it have been just a temporary hiccup

http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/a-betrayal-of-trust-and-liberty/2005/10/19/1129401313656.html

In Australia, any of us can be detained merely because authorities
believe we might know something that we don't even know we know.

The authorities do not have to believe we are guilty of any crime,
or are planning any crime, or have consorted with any suspicious persons.

How could such a law be drafted by the Government
and supported by the Labor opposition?

You can be detained for one week but then on a new warrant,
another and another and another week. Unless it is approved
in the original warrant - and why would ASIO do that?
- you are not allowed to contact your wife, your husband,
your child, your mother, your father and, of course, not a lawyer.

If you don't answer ASIO's questions satisfactorily, you can be charged
and subject to five years in jail. But the law is reasonable, it goes on to say
that if you don't know anything, then it's not an offence not to tell ASIO anything.

But you have to prove you didn't know anything and so the "onus of proof" is reversed.

You can be asked to produce a paper and if you don't, you also go to jail
on prosecution for five years but the law goes on to say, being fair-minded again,
if you don't have such a paper, it's not an offence not to produce it but
you have to prove that you didn't have it.

How do you prove you do not have something that you do not even know exists.
Again, "onus of proof" is reversed.

If a journalist heard that you had been detained and sought to report it,
he would go to jail for five years.

If a detained person were released and talked to anyone about his or her experiences,
subject to prosecution, five years in jail.

This seems to be a law for secret behaviour by authorities, for making somebody disappear.

It is a law that one would expect in tyrannical countries and not in Australia.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/a-betrayal-of-trust-and-liberty/2005/10/19/1129401313656.html