Do you have any political opinions which you would like to record before it becomes
illegal? This could be your last chance. The Howard Government will shortly put before
Parliament new legislation described by the media as ‘tough new terrorism laws.’ The
legislation is more aptly described as tough new terrorising laws, and appears to be
designed to stop dissent in this country for the long term.
As this Government’s domestic and foreign policies become more ethically untenable, the
need to suppress dissent becomes more urgent. Thousands of Australians marched against
US and Australian involvement in the Vietnam war, many of whom chanted ‘Ho Ho Ho
Chi Minh, we will fight, we will win.’ From now on, anyone who questions the official line
will need to choose their words carefully to avoid a seven-year jail term for sedition. Under
the proposed new sedition laws, if Australia has deployed troops to any country to fight an
‘insurgency’, anyone supporting the insurgency campaign ‘by any means whatsoever’ will
face charges. The onus will be on the accused to explain that they acted in good faith.
Alarmed? Here’s your chance to get things off your chest before it becomes illegal. Scrawl
your subversive words on the wall below. We’ve made a start. But when the new laws kick
in, better tear this page out and eat it.
'Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its labourers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.'
Dwight D. Eisenhower, from a speech before the
American Society of Newspaper Editors, April 16, 1963