COMMENT In a land where the government is clothed with so much legal power, where political power is centralised to an incredible degree in the Office of the Prime Minister and where there are no checks and balances, why is there a necessity for a law like the National Security Council Bill?

Although the draftsman cunningly never uses the word “emergency” in the NSC Bill, the right of the prime minister to declare a “security area” and the frighteningly wide powers given to the director of operations and others in such an area clearly indicate that, as a matter of substance and reality, such wide powers are akin to emergency powers expressly provided under Part XI of the Federal Constitution, that is Articles 149 to 151. In effect, the NSC Bill is an emergency law.

On two grounds, the source of the legal power of the NSC Bill is, however, not Articles 149 to 151 of the Federal Constitution. First, because the events listed in Article 149 (1), which must as a condition be recited in an Act of Parliament enacted under Part XI, just do not exist.