Thoughts on Freedom

Australian Libertarian Society Blog

Petition against ID card

Late last year I blogged about the Government’s latest attempts to re-introduce an ID card, under the friendly sounding name of “Access Card”. Concerns about the card lead to the legislation for the ID card being withdrawn on March 16. However the Liberal (sic) government is planning on re-introducing ID card legislation next month.

Libertarian activist Tim Waner is continuing the fight against the government through the ‘Access Card — No Way’ campaign. He will be speaking at the ID card forum (pdf) tomorrow in Melbourne at 1pm, coordinated by no2accesscard.

If you’re not in Melbourne or can’t get along to the forum, you can still show your opposition to the ID card by joining the anti-ID card petition run by the Australian Democrats. Go. Sign.

May 22, 2007 - Posted by John Humphreys | Civil liberties, Law | | 9 Comments

9 Comments »

  1. Not the petition I would have written but I signed on pragmatic grounds.

    Comment by terje (say tay-a) | May 22, 2007

  2. They got me with their anti fuel excise shtick. I think the rest of the petition letter was well written.

    Comment by Mark Hill | May 22, 2007

  3. Signed. Yet another reason not to reelect these loathesome toads.

    Comment by Tex | May 22, 2007

  4. Tim hit me for a donation to buy an ad against it to which I happily did so. I initially thought it sounded like a good idea as I superficially understood it only meant that it was equal to a drivers lisence with a persons health history on it, but its nothing of the sort.

    It’s actually a shocking monstrosity of a thing. They say you can opt out of having such a card, however that carries all sorts of issues that will result in exclusion. Please sign or donate towards the campaign.

    Comment by JC | May 22, 2007

  5. John

    Is this an issue the Democrats are running with? I know very little about the Democrats. What exactly do they stand for? Their front webpage slogan of “Justice, democracy, freedom, diversity, sustainability, accountability” doesnt exactly clarify matters.

    However, it seems they are onto a decent policy here.

    Is it an LDP issue?

    Comment by pommygranate | May 23, 2007

  6. Democrats are on the left – probably even to the left of ALP on many issues – but not as bad as the Greens. Though there’s many of the Dems views I don’t agree with, I have to give them full credit on this issue (I already signed the petition some time back)

    Personally, I think this should be a big one for LDP to campaign against. Dems are in the senate now, so there obviously in a better position at the moment, but I think LDP needs to take a strong stand on this.

    Comment by Fleeced | May 23, 2007

  7. I was around when the Democrats were formed. My opinion was that they took all of the “dont knows” out of the opinion polls, and welded them into a solid political force. They still didn’t know but they had a party to support.

    Comment by Jim Fryar | May 23, 2007

  8. [...] ALS blog also draws attention to a recent Australian Democrats petitition against the proposed ‘Access Card&… in a fine illustration of libertarian right and left [...]

    Pingback by Club Troppo » Missing Link - Thursday 24 May | May 24, 2007

  9. As a “constitutionalist” (and Author of the INSPECTOR-RIKATI® books) the first thing I am confronted with is if it is constitutionally permissible. In my view it is not. The Framers of the Constitution specifically stated that “CIVIL RIGHTS” remained with the States (as legislative powers) and Commonwealth law enforcement also remained the state law enforcement agencies and for the State Courts to enforce if it held so appropriately to do. As such, the ID card is not only unconstitutional but more over seeks to rob the States of their rights to adjudicate about its citizens.

    While the Commonwealth of Australia may insist that its requires an ID card to protect against fraudulent usage of services, I do not accept that this somehow can validate unconstitutional conduct.
    Lets have a look at section 116 of the Constitution prohibiting the Commonwealth of Australia to deal with religion. So, if the ID card isn’t going to have a persons religion on it then a person of a certain religion may be ending up in a hospital of a different religion and subjected to medical intervention not permitted by that persons own religion. Yet, if the States themselves were to control matters, as they should, then this kind of problem would not eventuate. This is mere one example to indicate problems that can arise.
    As I have set out in my recent book published on 27-5-2007 the WorkChoices legislation is and remains unconstitutional, regardless what the High Court of Australia purported to make of it, but the danger is with an ID card that if you are going for a job interview the Commonwealth of Australia could accidentally or deliberately manipulate the content on a card and you might be unable to get a job at certain businesses. No Government (regardless which political party is in power) can be trusted in that regard not to abuse its powers.
    If the Commonwealth of Australia were to insist the ID card then I for one would fight the case again. On 19-7-2006 I succeeded after a 5-year legal battle versus the Federal government lawyers on all constitutional grounds UNCHALLENGED, where I refused to vote as I successfully pursued that Section 245 of the CEA1918 was unconstitutional in that the Commonwealth of Australia had no constitutional powers to force anyone to register and/or to vote, regardless that the High court of Australia previously ruled otherwise. Again, I succeeded then and have no doubt will again.

    Comment by G. H. Schorel-Hlavka | June 23, 2007


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