- SYDNEY (AFP) - Proposed legislation
in Australia would make it a crime for one parent to tell the other that
their child had been detained under anti-terror laws, a report says.
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- If a youth aged between 16 and 18 was detained, one parent
would be informed and allowed to visit for two hours daily during the detention,
which could last for two weeks without charge, the Sydney Morning Herald
reported.
-
- But if the chosen parent was the father, for example,
and he told the mother where the child was, he could be jailed for up to
five years.
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- The opposition Labor Party's spokesman for homeland security,
Arch Bevis, scorned the proposal.
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- "The idea that one parent could see their child
and then somehow be fined or imprisoned for telling the other parent is
absurd."
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- Using Prime Minister John Howard and his wife Janette
as an example, Bevis said: "I suspect Janette would be pretty demanding
of John to find out where the kids were. And I'd hazard a guess that John
might even buckle under the pressure."
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- Howard's government proposed the tough new legislation
in the wake of the London transport bombings of July 7 which killed more
than 50 people.
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- The laws, which include giving police the right to "shoot
to kill" and allow for terror suspects to have their movements and
contacts restricted, are due to be introduced to parliament on October
31.
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- A spokesman for Attorney-General Philip Ruddock confirmed
that parents would not be exempt from a general ban on disclosing information
about anyone detained under the new legislation.
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- "There would only be one parent allowed to see the
minor," the spokesman told the newspaper.
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- "While the subject of a preventive detention could
tell the other parent they were safe, they couldn't tell them they were
in preventive detention."
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- Police would have the discretion to tell the other parent
if it was assessed that there was no risk, he said.
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