Free speech advocates from
across Australia’s political spectrum have raised concerns about
new counter-terrorism legislation passed by the Australian senate
this week.
The legislation, which received bipartisan support from
Australia’s two main political parties, grants new and increased
powers to Australia’s intelligence agencies.
Among these new powers is the ability of the Australian Secret
Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) to access a limitless number of
computers on a particular computer network, all under a single
warrant.
As The Sydney Morning Herald has reported,
this could potentially allow ASIO to monitor the entire
Internet.
Recent experience in the United States has shown clear potential
for abuse when the National Security Agency (NSA) and other
intelligence agencies are given wide-ranging surveillance powers.
The problem could be even more dire in Australia, where the
warrants required for surveillance are
granted by the director-general of ASIO, or his deputy, rather
than a judge or magistrate.
This means that a system of mass surveillance in Australia would
require less judicial oversight than the NSA’s now infamous
metadata program.
The legislation was opposed by a motley collection of senators
from across Australia’s political spectrum.
Sen. Scott Ludlum, of the left wing environmentalist party, the
Greens, was particularly vocal about his opposition to a new
offence for the unauthorized disclosure of information relating to
a special intelligence operation.
As the
Guardian Australia reports:
There is no limitation on whom this provision can be used
against, with media organisations and lawyers raising serious
concerns about the potential for a journalists to be jailed and a
“chilling effect” on reporting about intelligence matters.
The legislation was also opposed by
Australia’s first senator elected on a consistent libertarian
platform, the Liberal Democrats’ David Leyonhjelm, who warned
against the loss of freedom, in what he called a “moral
panic” about the threat of terrorism.
“I think it is very important that we absolutely maintain our
rights and freedoms as individuals and deal with the terrorists
without compromising those rights.”…“The idea [in this legislation] is you commit an offence unless
you can prove you’re innocent, it just goes against all of our
rights and freedoms as a free society.”
The legislation is set to come before the Australian House of
Representatives next week, where it all but guaranteed to pass.
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