{"id":128,"date":"2005-10-22T20:17:34","date_gmt":"2005-10-22T10:17:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/machinegunkeyboard.com\/?p=128"},"modified":"2005-10-24T10:38:38","modified_gmt":"2005-10-24T00:38:38","slug":"thoughtcrime-australian-style","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/machinegunkeyboard.com\/?p=128","title":{"rendered":"Thoughtcrime, Australian style"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p align=\"center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"372\" border=\"0\" title=\"You feeling safer yet?\" alt=\"You feeling safer yet?\" src=\"http:\/\/machinegunkeyboard.com\/blogimages\/aus_govt_terror_laws_criticise_us_go_to_prison.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Believe it or not, John HoWARd&#8217;s proposed terrorism law is not terribly novel regarding the specification of what speech can be deemed <em>sedition<\/em>. Since 1914, it has been a crime punishable by up to three years imprisonment to engage in <strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.austlii.edu.au\/au\/legis\/cth\/consol_act\/ca191482\/s24c.html\"><em>seditious enterprises<\/em><\/a><\/strong>: <\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>   CRIMES ACT 1914 &#8211; SECT 24C<\/strong>     <\/p>\n<p><strong>Seditious enterprises<\/strong> &#8211; A person who engages in a seditious enterprise with the intention of causing violence, or creating public disorder or a public disturbance, is guilty of an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.austlii.edu.au\/au\/legis\/cth\/consol_act\/ca191482\/s23wa.html#indictable_offence\">indictable offence<\/a> punishable on conviction by imprisonment for not longer than 3 years.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>HoWARd&#8217;s <a target=\"_self\" href=\"http:\/\/www.chiefminister.act.gov.au\/docs\/B05PG201_v281.pdf\"><strike>&nbsp; draft&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/strike> daft terrorism laws<\/a> would repeal sections 24A-F of the Crimes Act 1914 and replace them with a new, but similar definition of <em>seditious intention<\/em>: <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><em><strong>seditious intention<\/strong><\/em> means an intention to effect any of the<br \/>   following purposes:  <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li> (a) to bring the Sovereign into hatred or contempt;<\/li>\n<li> (b) to urge disaffection against the following: <\/li>\n<ul>\n<li> (i) the Constitution; <\/li>\n<li> (ii) the Government of the Commonwealth;<\/li>\n<li> (iii) either House of the Parliament;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<li> (c) to urge another person to attempt, otherwise than by lawful means, to procure a change to any matter established by law in the Commonwealth;<\/li>\n<li> (d) to promote feelings of ill-will or hostility between different groups so as to threaten the peace, order and good government of the Commonwealth. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p> However, as usual, the devil is in the detail. Gone from the 1914 Crimes Act is the specification that <em><strong>seditious enterprises<\/strong><\/em> must be committed in the course of encitement of others to overthrow the government by force in order to be an indictable offence. It doesn&#8217;t appear that you must necessarily have the intention of overthrowing of the government by force under HoWARd&#8217;s proposals. All you have to do to be guilty of <em><strong>seditious intention<\/strong><\/em> is &#8216;urge disaffection against the Government.&#8217;   <\/p>\n<p>George Orwell had a name for HoWARd style sedition: <a target=\"_self\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Thoughtcrime\">thoughtcrime<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>You feeling <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.smh.com.au\/news\/letters\/new-powers-deny-the-rights-we-are-fighting-for\/2005\/10\/20\/1129775900931.html\">safer yet?<\/a><\/p>\n<p>-weez&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Don&#8217;t you dare encourage others to be disaffected<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/machinegunkeyboard.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/machinegunkeyboard.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/machinegunkeyboard.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/machinegunkeyboard.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/machinegunkeyboard.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/machinegunkeyboard.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/machinegunkeyboard.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/machinegunkeyboard.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/machinegunkeyboard.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}