A former conservative prime minister has castigated Australia's present conservative government over its tough anti-terrorism legislation, likening the laws to those found in authoritarian regimes.
Former Liberal Party leader Malcolm Fraser called the laws, introduced in 2002 and subsequently amended, as 'tyrannical', claiming the government under Prime Minister John Howard was eroding the nation's democracy.
'They allow the government to detain somebody who is not even regarded as a suspect, who is not regarded as having plotted or thought something bad or evil,' he told the Board of Jewish Deputies in Sydney.
More ominously, he said, even the media would be forbidden from reporting the detention. Journalists who did so - or tried to do so - could be jailed.
Mr Fraser said Australians believed in the rule of law but the legislation showed indifference to due process.
'We don't accept the methods - the techniques - of tyrants or terrorists - [but] this is the sort of law you would find in tyrannical countries, most certainly,' he said.
