Can They Sink Any Lower?

I'm no legal expert, but common sense would indicate that Dr Haneef's charge of "recklessly lending a SIM card to terrorists" has little chance of resulting in a conviction. If the item was, for example, a rare, hard to obtain bomb fuse component, then there'd be some justifyable grounds. But there's none for supplying an item as common and easily obtained as phone sim card.

Obviously, the magistrate who granted Haneef bail thought the same. Enough's enough.

The subsequent removal of Haneef's residency visa as a means to keep him locked up is the most outrageous example of government interference in the legal system that I can remember. The presumption of 'innocent until proven guilty' has been thrown out by Kevin Andrews.

Andrews' action reinforces concerns I have about the erosion of protections in our legal system. Putting aside Haneef's guilt or innocence for the moment, these arch conservatives are allowing terrorist actions to undermine the very thing which sets us apart from the perpetrators. By eroding the basic legal protections, they are bridging the gap that differentiates our society from the one the terrorists would like to impose.

We suspected from the David Hicks saga that this conservative government places little value on the process of the law and human rights. Haneef's treatment confirms it.

Hopefully, this action will misfire for the government. To the conservative mind, retention of power is solely about the delivery of rosy economic outcomes to their natural constituency. The polls are showing that the electorate is looking beyond the financial numbers. Andrews' action will only reinforce the notion that the incumbents are mean, soulless and out of touch.