SHANE Rattenbury has criticised the Labor and Liberal parties for extending laws that allow police to take a person into custody and detain them for up to 14 days without charge, conviction or even suspicion of a crime.

“The ACT Labor and Liberal parties joined together today to pass the Terrorism (Extraordinary Temporary Powers) Amendment Bill, which extends temporary laws that were introduced in 2005 in response to the London terrorism attacks,” Shane said.

“Despite the fact that these preventative detention laws were originally intended to be “extraordinary” and “temporary”, following the passing today they will be in place for 15 years.

“Any act of terrorism is heinous and abhorrent. We must ensure we are doing all we can to prevent terrorism and have appropriate legislation in place to support law enforcement and intelligence.

“However, these laws run counter to the protections and freedoms we expect in our society – those that are even articulated in our human rights act such as the freedom from arbitrary detention and the right to a fair trial.

“These laws are not found in any other liberal democracies like Australia.

“As a jurisdiction that purports to respect and protect human rights, we should not support such an erosion of rights.

“A recent report by a review committee of independent and experienced experts called for preventative detention legislation to be repealed on the basis that they were operationally unsatisfactory and ineffective.

“The committee included the Assistant Commissioner of Police, a deputy Director of Public Prosecutions, and a Manager of domestic Counter Terrorism from the AFP.

“Further, enforcement agencies stated that, at a practical level, if there were sufficient material to warrant a detention order, there would likely be sufficient material to warrant conventional arrest and charge.

“So not only are these laws in contradiction to the basic human rights principals that underpin our jurisdiction, they are ineffective and unnecessary.”