WOW! but about Bl**dy time!

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw pg. 11 of Monday's SMH.

And the Law Council of Australia has definitetly put its money where its mouth is, because a full page ad does not come cheap.

Law Council President John North said, "Our letter, written in early November on behalf of the Australian legal profession, has clearly fallen on deaf ears."

"These advertisements are our way of saying to the Government that the legal profession's pleas on this important topic require an answer and an explanation," Mr North said.

"The new laws, which will likely impact on the daily lives of every single Australian citizen, are draconian and disproportionate. The legal profession is profoundly disturbed by their introduction," he said.

"The community will be gagged, with public debate potentially stifled. People can be pulled off the street, locked up for 14 days and held without charges being laid."

"As the Law Council states in the advertisement, the Government is capitalising on the threat of terrorism to introduce laws that put our most basic civil rights under threat. What is even more disturbing is the manner in which the Howard Government has gone about ramming these extraordinary laws through Parliament."

"The legal profession believes that the ramifications of these laws have the potential to be as terrifying as terrorism itself. The least Mr Howard could have done was acknowledge our concerns. Instead, they have been brushed aside," Mr North concluded.

Check the Law Council's advertisement here [pdf]: