Schedule 7 of the Anti Terrorism (No 2) Act 2005 will severely restrict freedom of expression in this country. Sedition provisions within the Act threaten the nature of public debate, the cornerstone of our democratic values, and should be repealed in their entirety. Read the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance's submission to the Australian Law Reform Commission inquiry into Schedule 7 here.

Public submissions close today for the Australian Law Reform Commission’s (ALRC) inquiry into the sedition provisions hastily passed through Parliament late last year. The ALRC has been given three months to consult, research and report back. To date most ALRC inquiries have taken one year to complete.

The Federal Attorney General promised the inquiry prior to the law’s enactment after the Senate Legal and Constitutional Legislation Committee recommended that Schedule 7 be removed. Out of 300 submissions to the Senate inquiry, only two were in favour of the sedition provisions, one from the Australian Federal Police, the other from the Federal Attorney General.

“That the provisions on sedition contained in Schedule 7 are revisiting arcane laws has been acknowledged by members of the Government,” says Alliance federal secretary Christopher Warren.

“The Attorney-General was sufficiently concerned about the provisions to announce they would be reviewed and some Government members, including George Brandis MP and Malcolm Turnbull MP, called for sedition laws to be abolished.”

The Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance has made a submission to the inquiry calling for the removal of the outdated sedition clauses, which threaten a seven-year jail term for those found guilty of an act committed with ‘seditious intention’.

The severe penalty combined with broad reaching definitions and the application of sedition through history could create an environment of intimidation and self censorship.

“Historically, sedition laws have been used as a political device to silence the voice of dissent during periods of social upheaval and unrest rather than curb acts of violence.

“In the context of the new anti-terror legislation, the laws are outdated and do not serve to protect national security against threats of terror. What’s more laws are unnecessary because what they seek to achieve is adequately catered for in pre-existing legislation.” says Warren.