Activist's arrest prompts questions about security powers/Scott Parkin [View All]

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A prominent lawyer has questioned whether the Federal Government has abused its powers by planning to deport an American peace activist. Scott Parkin has been in Australia since June. He was arrested in Melbourne on Saturday after his visa was revoked when an assessment showed he posed a threat to Australia's national security. Human rights lawyer Julian Burnside QC says he wants to know why it took so long for authorities to act if indeed Mr Parkin is a security threat.

"They've got the right but the question is whether that right has been exercised in a way that provides sufficient protection for ordinary citizens of Australia," he said. Greens Senator Bob Brown has described Mr Parkin's detention and probable deportation as an abuse of ASIO's powers. "We're not a police state," Senator Brown said. "ASIO's emergency powers, which have gone through the Parliament opposed by the Greens, were meant to be for terrorists, not for people who are campaigning against the misdeeds of the US administration or its associates."

Mr Parkin's legal adviser, Marika Dias, says he has attended several protests in Australia but has done nothing wrong.She says Mr Parkin is shocked by his arrest.
"He's suspected of doing something but what that something is hasn't been made clear to him or us," Ms Dias said."To my knowledge the activities that he's been involved in have been about peaceful protests, peaceful activism, certainly non-violent activism." A group of peace activists has staged a demonstration in support of Mr Parkin at Milton in inner Brisbane.Protest spokesman Sam La Rocca says Mr Parkin is an advocate for peaceful community action against corporate greed. But Ms La Rocca says the Government's actions are wrong. "The Australian Government is once again failing to protect real national security and what they're doing today is deporting democracy," she said. "I think it's shameful."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200509/s1458026.htm

A little backround on Scott Parkin
Scott Parkin, an experienced community organiser, activist and trainer from Houston, Texas works with Houston Global Awareness, campaigning to get the corporate war profiteer, Halliburton, out of Iraq
http://users2.ev1.net/~geosynch/hgac.html