SSedition sucks

"Sedition laws are internationally recognised as anti-democratic laws. In the past 40 years countries that have repealed such laws include Canada, Ghana, Ireland, Kenya, New Zealand, South Africa, Taiwan, the United States and Britain.

Countries that have either updated or used sedition laws during this time include China, Cuba, Hong Kong, Malaysia, North Korea, Singapore, Syria and Zimbabwe.

Perhaps [Attorney General Philip] Ruddock should tell us which list he would like Australia to belong to.

One of the more misleading claims [of Ruddock] is that these changes follow the 1991 recommendations of the former High Court chief justice Sir Harry Gibbs.

The truth is that these proposed laws are only selectively based on those recommendations. Again, as just one example, Gibbs recommended that the unlawful associations section in existing sedition laws, including the definition of "seditious intention", should be completely repealed - not modernised."

These excerpts and more at : http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/antidemocratic-provisions-fall-on-the-wrong-side-of-the-law/2005/11/21/1132421599342.html