6-28-06, 8:42 am
The Federal Government announced that it will reduce the number of Senate Committees from 16 to 10 and that each of the Committees will be chaired by a representative of the Liberal Party.
The practice of these committees being chaired by a member of the ALP or alternating the chairs between Liberal (and possibly a National Party) and Labor Party members is to be abandoned. The many fewer committees will have their terms of reference determined by the Liberal Party while the Committee reports will also be written by the Liberal Party representatives. The Liberal Party will also determine what issues are to be considered by a Senate Committee which means that important or contentious issues will not be investigated unless the Liberal Party can gain some benefit out of it.
In the past, Senate Committees have played an important part in making the government accountable as a house of review. Not any more!
The Senate was initially established to look after the interests of the States and that is the reason why the number of Senators elected from each state is the same, irrespective of the population of the State. With the Liberal and National Parties now exercising a majority in the Senate it is being turned into a tool in the hands of the government to expedite its reactionary agenda, or at least, that is what the Prime Minister hopes.
The changes to the electoral laws — which are intended to cover up the huge donations by companies to both the Liberal and Labor Parties — are another aspect of the emasculation of democratic rights. Those in prison will no longer have the right to vote. Electoral rolls will close immediately following the declaration of a poll giving no time to register to vote. These measures are nothing more than a further attack on democratic processes. As time goes on there will be further restrictions.
Make no mistake about it, even the limited democratic rights established in capitalist states are no longer acceptable to the present rulers who are fearful of the far-reaching changes and revolutionary developments now taking place in a number of countries.
Other aspects of Howard’s anti-democratic agenda include the IR legislation which has already been well described in a number of Guardian articles. Suffice to say again that this legislation is not simply an attack on the economic interests of the working people of Australia. It also takes away the long held rights of trade unions to operate in the interests of their members. The virtual outlawing of the right to strike, the severe restrictions on the right of trade union officials to enter workplaces, the abolition of the right to remain silent before a court or face long jail terms and the huge penalties which will be imposed on workers and trade union officials, are all attacks on democratic rights.
The so-called 'anti-terror' laws, claimed to be directed against terrorism, will sooner or later be used to attack other organisations as well. The listing of suspect organisations and the banning of assistance to a listed organisation can very easily be extended to any organisation that the Attorney-General and the Prime Minister decide to add to their list. The recent conviction of an alleged 'terror' suspect, not for what he has done but for what it is claimed he might do, is a good example of what is to come. It is no longer in the realm of the future, it is already happening.
On the background of all these developments it will have come as an unpleasant surprise to Howard to find that a number of Liberal and National Party Senators have begun to dig their heels in on some issues, in the first place the government’s refugee legislation. Such opposition to Howard’s rush to dictatorship is likely to spread as time goes on.
The working class movement must assume the leadership of the resistance to Howard’s dictatorship. The time is about five minutes to midnight!
From The Guardian
