No ones safe under these laws: Surveillance Bill could target activists and downloaders
The Morrison governments proposed Surveillance Bill could be used to target everyone from Black Lives Matter campaigners to underage kids illegally downloading movies, critics have warned. Victorians Greens Senator Lidia Thorpe told The New Daily that the sweeping powers proposed by the Bill have far-reaching implications for grassroots activists, and people standing up for their rights. No ones safe under these new laws, Senator Thorpe said.
It will affect grassroots communities across the country, it will affect children. It will affect anybody who downloads a movie illegally over the internet they could go to jail for five years. The proposed legislation gives the Australian Federal Police, the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission and, through those bodies, the Australian Signals Directorate three new powers to investigate and disrupt criminal activity online.
Under the laws, authorities could hack, secretly takeover, and add, copy, and delete material on computers and digital accounts anywhere in the world without the account-holders knowledge or consent. Black Lives Matter campaigners, climate and forest activists, and others who use social media to protest and organise could be subjected to these invasive new laws that allow government agencies to infiltrate peoples social media platforms, change the wording, and have complete control over peoples personal social media platforms, Senator Thorpe said. She slammed the Bill as just another way that [Home Affairs Minister Peter] Dutton is trying to stay relevant by bringing in these these laws that are intrusive into peoples lives. Its an invasion of privacy, its a breach of human rights, and its more reason that we need a bill of rights in this country, Senator Thorpe said. This government has a very bad track record on human rights violations and then introduce these sweeping laws that are about spying on their own community. Mr Dutton introduced the Surveillance Legislation Amendment (Identity and Disrupt) Bill to parliament last Thursday and argued that the new legislation is needed to crack down on child sexual abuse and terrorism offences perpetrated under the cover of the dark web.
On Tuesday, Mr Dutton referred the Bill to the parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security for review, with an outcome not expected until next year. The New Daily put questions to Mr Dutton about the community consultation undertaken prior to the Bills introduction, the safeguards in place, and whether Australia needs a charter of human rights.
A statement from a spokesperson for the Attorney-Generals Department was provided in response, stating that the Bill includes strict oversight and review mechanisms. Network activity warrants and data disruption warrants will only be available upon application to an eligible Judge or nominated AAT member, or magistrate in the case of account-takeover warrants, the statement said. The Bill provides robust oversight by the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security for the network activity warrants, and the Commonwealth Ombudsman for the data disruption warrant and the account takeover warrant.
Two years ago, the government, with the support of Labor, rushed through the anti-encryption Telecommunications and Other Legislation Amendment (Assistance and Access) Act 2018, which forces telco and tech companies to hand over data to law enforcement authorities upon request. The laws were justified as necessary to prevent terrorism, but were subsequently used to raid the ABC and the home of News Corp journalist Annika Smethurst following reporting on alleged Australian war crimes in Afghanistan.