Prime Minister John Howard’s immediate response was to claim that the bombings were primarily an attack on the Indonesian government. “I think it was aimed to weaken democratic Indonesia,” he said. Australian police were sent to Bali right after the bombings.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said that despite the latest attacks Indonesia had worked hard to fight terrorism. “We’re putting an enormous number of resources into Indonesia to assist them in combating JI,” he said, referring to Jemaah Islamiah, the Indonesian group with ties to Al Qaeda.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Labor opposition leader Kim Beazley said that “Australia was not doing enough to fight terrorism in the region.”

Both Liberal and Labor politicians have used the latest bombings to win support for new “anti-terror” measures agreed to recently by state governments and federal premier Howard.

At a September 27 summit, Howard and top officials of all states and territories in the country agreed to introduce state laws that restrict the political rights of working people. Howard said the new powers were needed to confront today’s “very dangerous and different and threatening circumstances.”

The laws will provide greater powers for police to impose house arrest with no conviction for up to 12 months, detention without charge for up to 14 days, the use of electronic tagging tracking devices, and bans on approaching certain areas or people.

Detainees will be allowed to tell family members and their employer only that they are safe but cannot be contacted. They will be able to contact a lawyer but their communications will be monitored. The amount of information made available to lawyers of the accused will depend on each attorney’s level of security clearance.

Queensland Labor premier Peter Beattie said the laws were “draconian but necessary.” These bills had to be introduced at a state level because the federal government does not have the constitutional power to introduce some of the measures on its own.

Under new federal laws the attorney general can withhold information from a court, the accused, and his lawyers in “the interests of national security.” Such legislation was used recently when Scott Parkin, a peace activist from the United States, was arrested after being in the country for 10 weeks. Parkin was deported September 16.

The federal government claimed Parkin was involved in “politically motivated violence.” The Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) refused to provide any evidence to support that claim. Opposition Labor leader Kim Beazley was briefed by ASIO and backed the deportation.  
 
 
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