Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to echo the concerns about the report by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security that we have just heard from Senator Carr. We are in a free and open democracy, where the expression of points of view is at a premium. We are also in an age when terrorism has been raised as a major political issue and has been used—quite correctly—to worry people about the security of our society. But it is very imprudent to allow that to have the consequence of shutting down a debate or representation in movements, particularly those which ostensibly are aiming for self-determination, freedom and democracy—the very things which President Bush and Prime Minister Howard, for example, espouse as major qualities of a future peaceful global situation.

These are difficult questions. Would not, under the current government, Nelson Mandela and his organisation have been proscribed a couple of decades ago? I think they would. Would not, potentially, the same have happened to Xanana Gusmao in East Timor? I think it would. We have to be extremely careful that Australia be judicious about the use of proscription, and particularly where, as Senator Carr says, there is a delineation between military activists and people who are advocating democracy.