Free David Hicks rally - Melbourne 21 April : Melbourne Indymedia

Umbrellas were out, as they say on SBS, but something over two hundred people were there to hear Bob Brown, Terry Hicks, Martin Kingham and Liz Thompson, as well as two representatives of Civil Rights Defence, expressing different perspectives on the issues raised by the case of David Hicks. The CRD speakers sketched the work of the group over the last few years in campaigns around the erosion of civil liberties in Australian society, specifically in connection with Jack Thomas, anti-terror legislation, the thirteen Melbourne men detained in maximum security at Barwon Prison, and most recently, David Hicks. They dealt with the question of why CRD is continuing to campaign since David Hicks' plea bargain, the first reason to continue calling for him to be freed being the fact that he is not free: he will be returning to a maximum security prison for the next nine months. He has been gagged and cannot talk about what he has been through. 'He will be freed from Guantanamo, but not freed from the suffering he will face as a result of his treatment.' Like Jack Thomas, he could still be subject to a control order restricting travel and even the ability to leave his house in the evenings. And this could be done not by a court order, but by the sole discretion of Philip Ruddock ... the very person who has failed to ensure David Hicks' return to Australia ... any kind of fair treatment, let alone a trial .. who supported the passing of the terror laws that have now not just eroded but trampled all over out civil rights. David Hicks is not free, that's why Civil Rights Defence continues to fight to free [him], to shut Guantanamo Bay for ever, and to abolish the terror laws, and to free all those currently charged and imprisoned under them ...
The rally was co-sponsored by Liberty Victoria and the Victorian Trades Hall Council.

MP3 1.07 MB, 9min.21

(introduced by CRD representative) read a statement from the G20 arrestee solidarity network ...
" ... a question that really need to be asked is why it is that the full force of the state - snatch squads, federal police, anti-terror units - have been deployed against the G20 protesters, when Paul Wolfowitz, architect of the Iraq invasion, a man against whom a million Australians and millions more around the globe protested, got a special invitation [to the G20 forum].
The full statement, MP3 1.03 MB, 9min.03

himself a past target of draconian laws, expressed admiration for Terry Hicks as well as for others who had waged this campaign, not forgetting Major Mori - 'just when we thought there were were no good Americans, one pops up ...' - and called for the fight to continue, not just to get David Hicks home, but also to 'punish' the Howard Government for its role in the affair.He drew a comparison with the experience of his own union's workers - 'Up and down the country at this moment rank and file members of the CFMEU are being interrogated, prosecuted, and fined for standing up for workers' rights, for taking part in industrial action. The Howard Government is a bad government. No Australian citizen should ever again be exposed to the jeopardy that David Hicks was exposed to by his own government... So lets all get together and vote these bastards out!'

Martin Kingham's speech MP3 408KB, 3min.27

'The problem we have with this government at the moment is what rights do we as Australians have? Under this government we have none. They've stripped us of our human rights ... They've also now taken the freedom of speech, or so they think ...' He echoed Martin Kingham's call to vote the Howard Government out, to 'put your tick in the other box [and] let him see what he can do under pressure.'
Full speech. MP3 672 KB, 5min.43.