MULTICULTURALISM is an ally, not an enemy, in the fight against terrorism, prominent Liberal Petro Georgiou has declared, as Muslim leaders warn that new laws could increase Australia’s security risk by isolating their communities.
Mr Georgiou, a staunch advocate of civil liberties, last night urged the Government to consider setting up an independent watchdog to monitor the impact of sweeping anti-terrorism legislation.
He said the authority could report regularly to Parliament so that any “unintended adverse consequences” of the counter-terrorism legislation were identified and promptly rectified.
The idea was immediately backed by prominent Queensland Liberal senator George Brandis, who supported expanded powers in the fight against terrorism, but said it was important to “correspondingly expand” the safeguards against abuse of powers.
The call from the high-profile Liberals came as Muslim leaders said they were dismayed by the sweeping new laws, branding them draconian, alarming and a knee-jerk reaction.
“Now that we’ve had a chance to see some of the proposed detail it’s even scarier than we imagined,” said Islamic Council of Victoria spokesman Waleed Aly.
Mr Aly said there was a sense among Muslims of alienation from the Government. “I don’t think that’s healthy from the social or security perspective.” He accepted that the Government did not intend to target Muslims, but believed this was inevitable.
“The mood of the community is very dejected. Muslims are really gutted about the whole terrorism phenomenon and (feel) that they are being defamed by their co-religionists, but there is also a very strong sense of dejection about the Government,” Mr Aly said.
The comments are in contrast to the declarations of support and co-operation that emerged during Prime Minister John Howard’s summit with Muslim leaders less than two months ago.
Mr Georgiou, delivering the Castan lecture in Melbourne last night, stressed that care must be taken to ensure the new laws did not unfairly affect Muslim and Arab Australians.
“I believe that a commitment to multiculturalism, to respecting diversity, is vital to achieving and maintaining the highest level of community co-operation and participation in the fight against terrorism,” Mr Georgiou said.
One concern was that laws that were intended to be non-discriminatory might be applied in a discriminatory way