[JURIST] Australia's Labor Party leader Kim Beazley [official profile] said Thursday that the controversial sedition provisions [JURIST report] set to be included in Australia's new anti-terror laws lower the country "to the standard[s] of North Korea, Syria and Cuba." On Wednesday, Australian Prime Minister John Howard [official profile] bowed to pressure [JURIST report] from back-benchers and agreed to several amendments [interview transcript] to the proposed anti-terror legislation [text; JURIST report] that will soften several of its provisions but he has refused to fully remove sedition offenses [AAP report] from the bill. Beazley, who claimed the proposals will hurt Australian workers, said he would give like-minded senators every opportunity to vote to separate the sedition elements from the bill, through Labor amendments. The Herald Sun has more.

Previously in JURIST's Paper Chase...

• Australian PM backs down in face of party revolt on terror laws
• Former Australian PM says government reversing human rights advances
• Australian House passes terror law without amendment
• Australian senators call for changes to proposed anti-terror law
• PM says Australian anti-terror proposals won't limit press freedoms
• Australia continues to push new anti-terror measures

ALSO ON JURIST   Op-ed: Rights at Risk: My Dissent from the Australian Anti-terror Bill [Jon Stanhope, ACT Chief Minister]