As the Cybercrime Legislation Amendment Bill 2011 has recently passed, the Pirate Party continues to advocate the limitation of surveillance to court-ordered specific cases where reasonable grounds for suspicion are provided.

Pirate Party Australia has previously recommended in 2011 that Australia does not accede to the Convention on Cybercrime due to it being “fundamentally unbalanced”[1].

“In our submissions regarding the Convention of Cybercrime and the recent National Security Inquiry, we argued – and will continue to argue – against overly intrusive schemes which would unduly put at risk the privacy of Australian citizens,” said David W. Campbell, President of Pirate Party Australia.

In response to the Senate’s passing of the Cybercrime Legislation Amendment Bill 2011[2], Attorney-General Nicola Roxon said in a statement that “this will help combat criminal offences relating to forgery, fraud, child pornography and infringement of copyright and intellectual property.”[3]

“Pirate Party Australia supports protecting Australia from dangerous crime. However, we must strike a balance between personal privacy and security, and we are not convinced that this balance has been met with this legislation,” responded Brendan Molloy, Secretary of Pirate Party Australia.

“We are yet to complete a thorough analysis of the bill including its amendments, but at this stage, there are already questions to be raised about offshore privacy protection of Australian data as a result of an executed warrant, dual criminality concerns and time limits on warrants.”

Pirate Party Australia will complete a more detailed rundown of the effects of this bill passing in the coming days.

[1] https://pirateparty.org.au/2011/03/23/cybercrime-convention-to-make-all-australians-suspects/
[2] http://www.comlaw.gov.au/Details/C2011B00116
[3] http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/amended-cybercrime-bill-passes-senate/story-e6frf7kf-1226455790356