Senior Labor MP Anthony Albanese has spoken out about the Abbott governments national security laws, attacking a lack of scrutiny of the legislation and restrictions on press freedom. Speaking on Sunday to Sky News program Australian Agenda, Mr Albanese struck out at draconian laws that could see journalists jailed for five to 10 years and said they may need to be wound back. In the strongest comments yet from a senior figure on either side of politics, Mr Albanese appeared to break with his Labor colleagues and signalled both the government and Opposition may have acted too quickly in rushing the laws through. I think there should be greater scrutiny not just from Labor but from the government as well, Mr Albanese said. At a time like this, the security agencies will take every opportunity to impose things that have been in their bottom drawer for a long period of time. Mr Albanese said that laws that threatened to restrict legitimate work by journalists to expose errors made by security agencies, in particular, went too far. You can be fully supportive of our engagement in the Middle East and still say we dont protect freedom by giving it up, Mr Albanese said. I dont believe theres been enough scrutiny. I believe that the media laws, much of them are draconian, he said. Mr Albanese said the government also had not allowed for enough debate of Australias military involvement in Iraq. Both the Greens and Independent MP Andrew Wilkie moved unsuccessful bids to have Australias commitment debated by the parliament, with the government and Labor blocking their attempts. Mr Albanese said he was not a pacifist and believed the world could not sit by and watch the brutality of Islamic State, but the parliament should still be consulted. I believe there should be more debate on the floor of the House of Representatives, not up in the federation chamber, about our engagement, he said. When we put Australians at risk that should be properly debated.
Posted on: Sun, 12 Oct 2014 06:35:57 +0000