Revelations that New Zealand’s Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) used data from the NSA’s PRISM program in their quest to prosecute Kim Dotcom indicate that Australian intelligence and law enforcement agencies may have similar access to the NSA’s surveillance data.
Pirate Party Australia urges the Government to investigate the possibility that Australian intelligence, security and law enforcement agencies have had access to the information that was covertly collected by the United States, and give the Australian public an assurance that intelligence collected by our allies will not be used against Australian citizens.
It has been revealed that the GCSB may have had, or continues to have, access to the controversial surveillance program that was exposed in May this year. The program is aggressively defended by its proponents as an invaluable tool for fighting terrorism, but has allegedly been used to target Kim Dotcom, the Internet entrepreneur whose New Zealand house was raided over a year and a half ago[1]. Regardless of the charges currently leveled against Mr Dotcom, there is no claim that he was, or is, a terrorist.
“If it is true that the warrantless mass surveillance program was used against Mr Dotcom, the claims that it is used solely to fight terrorism are invalidated,” said David Campbell, Pirate Party Senate candidate for NSW. “Instead, it shows that despite persistent claims to the contrary, PRISM’s scope extends well beyond terrorism and into broader criminal prosecution. It is entirely unacceptable that our intelligence agencies should be able to outsource their dirty work to foreign spy organisations,and the Government must take steps to ensure this is not occuring.”
While Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has made vague assurances that any data obtained from foreign intelligence sources is being used in accordance with Australian law, this does nothing to allay concerns that under intelligence-sharing agreements our intelligence agencies may have had access to information they presently cannot legally collect in Australia. This would be an effective circumvention of domestic limitations.
The widespread use of metadata by various enforcement agencies demostrates that Australians are already subjected to widespread warrantless surveillance even without access to data from the NSA. Last year it there were 293,501[2] metadata requests carried out on Australians, all of which occured without a warrant or any judicial oversight. Metadata may include everything related to communications, such as time, location, duration and the sender and receivers, except the actual content.
Pirate Party Australia demands the immediate cessation of warrantless surveillance in this country and advocates that all parliamentarians support the Greens’ “Get A Warrant” amendments to the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 as well as rejecting data retention provisions proposed in the National Security Inquiry discussion paper last year[3].
“The assault on our civil liberties is not being discussed by either of the major parties in this election because it has bi-partisan support,” said Queensland Senate candidate, Melanie Thomas. “There is widespread opposition to warrantless surveillance outside Parliament however, and deep concern about the attack on our liberties through blanket mass-interception of our communications.”
“It is time that both major parties state their intentions — will they support mass surveillance or will they take measures to wind it back? Australians need to know whether major parties respect civil liberties or will continue the assault that has been under way for the last twelve years under the pretence of a war on terror,” Thomas concluded.
[1] http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/08/new-zealand-appears-to-have-used-nsa-spy-network-to-target-kim-dotcom/
[2] http://www.ag.gov.au/NationalSecurity/TelecommunicationsSurveillance/Pages/Annualreports.aspx (2012 report, pp 65-66)
[3] https://pirateparty.org.au/2012/08/24/pirate-party-releases-national-security-inquiry-submission/