Howard backs shoot to kill laws
"For centuries, law enforcement officers have had the right at common law to use deadly force if necessary to protect life or to prevent serious injury depending on the circumstances,"
"London drove home, more than any other terrorist attack, drove it home to us that it could happen here."
On the prosed anti terrorism laws: "Now I acknowledge they are unusual … and it's necessary because we live in unusual times." John Howard Australian Prime Minister
“These are powers whose breadth and arbitrary nature, with lack of judicial oversight, should not exist in any democratic country. If one says, "But they will not be abused," I do not agree. If arbitrary power exists, they will be abused.” Malcolm Fraser Former conservative Prime Minister
“I think the shoot-to- kill provision is meant to set the style for this whole suite of measures eroding civil liberties. Bob Brown, Federal Greens leader
"Shoot-to-kill was not part of the discussions; it was not part of the communiqué." Morris Iemma NSW Premier
"To have a provision like that exposes us to the sorts of risks that we saw in the UK." Geoff Gallop West Australian Premier
"The Government should leave the laws alone because existing laws can cover the situation. It currently doesn't make any difference if you pull a gun and you're Saddam Hussein or a shop-lifter. There is not much difference in how the police would respond." John North Law Council president
"If the [police] are armed with one of these [orders] ... and if this person attempts to flee the arrest, he can be shot and fatally shot." John McIntyre president of the NSW Law Society.
“Laws which are non-discriminatory on their face may be applied in a discriminatory way by the security and police agencies.” Petro Georgiou, Government backbencher
“The legislation, as we now have it, certainly is a violation of human rights. And that what the Prime Minister said was going to be in there - judicial review, as an example - simply isn't there.” Professor Hilary Charlseworth, International Human Rights Lawyer
We have a terrorist threat to our community. And in these circumstances, people are going to be jumpy and jittery in police forces and everywhere else. Kim Beazley Federal Opposition leader
“Politicians, not terrorists or trade unions, are the biggest threat to Australian democracy today.” Kenneth Davidson The Australian
“ I don't see the need for the preventive detention measure - unless it is designed to deliberately target people who aren't suspected of an offence - a dragnet operation, to round up, say, a whole Muslim group.” Ben Saul law lecturer, University of NSW
“It should, of course, be illegal to encourage other people to kill Australian soldiers. However, I have very grave concerns about constraining the freedom of people to support views and polices that may not coincide with the views and policies of the Australian Government…” Allan Behm strategic analyst
“Imagine that: ringing your wife or your husband after you've been detained and saying, 'Look I won't be home for 14 days'. They'd say, ‘where are you?' and you'd say, ‘I just won't be home. Don't worry about it'” Jon Stanhope ACT Chief Minister
"In our view, state Labor governments, including obviously the Victorian Government, should not express any position in relation to the Federal Government's proposed extension of anti-terror laws until the Federal Government has produced a bill, or a draft of a bill," ALP's justice and democracy policy committee
“Last Thursday in the Senate, the Government sneakily tried to ram through plans for a quick-and-dirty Senate review of the anti-terror legislation.” Steve Lewis The Australian
"The devil is in the detail and there are plenty of devils in this legislation. Frankly, we are disappointed because while the Prime Minister said there would be lots of safeguards, there don't appear to be that many." Waleed Kadous Australian Muslim Civil Rights Advocacy Network
"Putting people under house arrest for a year by a control order is tantamount to jailing people without trial," Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
"There is no racial profiling. If there were to be, in the conduct of these laws, racial elements taken into account we would have to amend the Racial Discrimination Act and we have no intention to do so." Philip Ruddock Australian Attorney General
“I for one, as well as other Muslims, had reservations in that the laws were… seemed to target Muslim young people and Muslim people. And then the other side of the spectrum was that the laws, no they're not targeting Muslim people, but the implementation inevitably will target them.” Iktimal Hage Ali Muslim Community Reference Group
“The laws proposed allow children to be subjected to both preventative detention and control orders. Children as young as 16 could also face house arrest for up to 12 months.”Amnesty International Australia
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