Update (11:29am): corrected PR to point out that it was anonymous security bureaucrats who made the announcement, not the Government.
Pirate Party Australia are pleased with, but skeptical about, by the announcement by anonymous security bureaucrats that the Australian Government will delay implementing mandatory two-year data retention plans until after the next election.
Yesterday, anonymous security bureaucrats announced that proposals contained within the National Security Security Inquiry discussion paper to store the web history of all Australians for up to two years will be stalled until 2013. The National Security Inquiry has been labelled as “controversial” and the Attorney-General’s Department expects it to attract “significant public interest”[1].
“While we are happy that action on this issue will be delayed, we are skeptical that this may mean they will push the changes through quietly once no-one is looking,” said Simon Frew, Deputy President of Pirate Party Australia. “Given the very short timeframe that the public were given to hand submissions to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, we anticipate there will be minimal oversight when legislative changes are put forward.”
“The Government has side-stepped a pre-election battle over online privacy. Stalling this issue is not the same as removing it. The Government appears to recognise the proposals as controversial, and seems to want to avoid any media and public attention if – or when – the changes occur.”
More broadly, the discussion paper’s proposals intersect several ideological boundaries not relating to the Internet. Pirate Party Australia is committed to protecting the privacy and dignity of Australian citizens both online and off, and considers many of the proposals to go further than is necessary to ensure the safety of Australian citizens.
Beyond penalties for failing to disclose passwords and the excessive data-retention period, the discussion paper also proposes provisions for the Attorney-General to widen the scope of warrants and extend them to six months without oversight.
“Perhaps most shockingly, there would be provisions which could be used to shield intelligence officers from prosecution for misconduct and breaking our law. This is beyond alarming and should really set off warning bells in a free and democratic society,” Mr Frew commented.
Pirate Party Australia have launched an online Senate petition in reaction to the heavy-handed ‘security measures’ that the discussion paper proposes. The petition can be found here: https://pirateparty.org.au/natsecinquiry-petition