PerthNorg

Website calls for Kevin Andrews' resignation

A website has been built calling for the resignation of Kevin Andrews, the Federal Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, over his handling of the Haneef affair.

The website creator gives his name as Michael on the \"about\" page and says he is not affiliated with any political party and built the site with one purpose - to request the resignation of Kevin Andrews.

It says:

This website claims no judgement on Dr. Hanneef's innocence or guilt. The core issue is a member of the Government using powers to detain people based on secret evidence which may not necessarily stand up in an independent court.

I emailed Michael to ask him a bit more about his background - he said he was a conscientious web developer who felt strongly about the issues in the Dr Haneef case and hoped he could help raise public awareness. He gave his full name as Michael Koukoullis.

I also asked why it was Andrews that he was targeting and not Mick Keelty or Damian Bug. Here's his response:

As senior figures, both Mick Keelty and Damian Bugg need to be held accountable for their contribution to the fiasco. I suspect they were pressured by the Government and/or possibly over zealous in their handling of the case.

Nevertheless the conduct of Kevin Andrews is by far the most reckless, last time I checked the founding principles of our free society politicians didn't have the power to detain people based on their suspicions. Something seems to have changed for the worse.

As well as the political message, the site is also an interesting example of the increasing role the web is playing in politics.

As Michael told me \"the web is a great platform that is delivering so much to the world ... and I plan to continue using my skills with the web to bring out more social applications to address common social issues in need of a savvy web presence.\"