creeping fascism update

Happy news from NSW, where the police are now going to have the power to secretly search homes and computers continuously for up to three years before any notification is given to the subject of the searches.  This will apply even though the subject has committed no actual offence, and will be based solely on that person being ‘suspected’ of any offence carrying a maximum penalty of 7 years or more (i.e.: virtually anything).  You will note that there is no requirement that the person have any link to the terrorism boogie-man.

Of course the NSW police would never, for example, be corrupt, so there’s no need to worry about planting evidence or other abuses of the power or anything like that.  And as always, those who obey the law have nothing to fear from the police secretly going through their private possessions and emails while they are away on holiday.  So that’s fine then.

Meanwhile here in South Australia, the State Government has been building files on thousands of innocent people who have seemingly done little to bring themselves to the attention of the powers-that-be.  The files include:

well-known business people, company directors, sports personalities, people in the entertainment industry, religious groups, the media and legal profession

So, yes.  I’m not exactly sure why we bothered with that whole World War II thingo, might have been cheaper to just let the Germans impose an efficient police state on us rather than killing them and then building our own over the course of the next 60 years.

I only hope Labor is serious about a national charter of rights, although I have my doubts at this stage.  The proposals currently in vogue generally make it a trivial exercise for governments to sidestep their operation with the stroke of a pen.