This is an opinion piece authored by Simon Frew, President of Pirate Party Australia. It has been sent to The Guardian for publication.
On Thursday the new Attorney-General, George Brandis, announced his Chief of Staff: former Australian Secret Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) Director-General, Paul O’Sullivan. Brandis used this announcement to signify his desire to ‘have a strong national-security focus‘[1] in the role of Attorney-General.
This announcement raises serious concerns for anyone wanting to curb the power of Australian intelligence agencies’ abilities in their never-ending quest to better snoop on our private lives. The last Coalition Government granted new powers to intelligence agencies repeatedly, with no public consultation or regard to the impacts on the civil liberties of Australian citizens.
Although both major parties have pushed for more draconian surveillance powers, the Australian Labor Party (ALP) was the one that had the courage to announce a public inquiry into their proposals for greater powers for law enforcement and intelligence agencies. The inquiry into new national security powers and provisions saw a massive response from Australian citizens with 236 papers being submitted; the vast majority were opposed to greater powers for Australian spooks. As a result of such a powerful response, new laws were not passed.
Since then Australia has been implicated in the massive, dragnet surveillance system being run by the US National Security Agency (NSA), which was uncovered in the leaks provided by security contractor, Edward Snowden. The Australian Signals Directorate (formerly the Defence Signals Directorate) has been exposed tapping undersea telecommunications cables[2] and participates in the Five Eyes surveillance agreement, along with agencies in the US, UK, Canada and New Zealand.
The revelations are still ongoing. Most recently, the Washington Post revealed Australia’s involvement in the collection of 250 million emails, instant messaging and social media contact lists per year. This gives spies access to associations between potentially billions of people[3]. The exposure of this information, although a treasure trove for intelligence agencies, is a level of surveillance Australians as a society have never been subjected to. The risk of this data finding its way into the wrong hands is significant and the potential for abuse should be gravely concerning to anyone who values a free society.
Despite significant public outrage, both major parties remained largely silent on this scandal. Although there has been little opportunity to quiz the new Attorney-General about Australia’s involvement, former Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus refused to discuss the matter at the time of the first disclosures. He claimed that both Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning (formerly Bradley Manning) did not qualify as a whistle-blowers because they hadn’t exposed any government ‘wrong-doing.'[4] Secret, blanket surveillance of a scale unimagined by George Orwell might adhere to the letter of the law (a dubious claim in itself given some of the revelations), but it does not in any way match the expectations of a reasonable level of surveillance in a supposedly open democracy.
During the eleven years of the last Coalition Government (1996–2007) there were no consultations into national security laws, despite the Government repeatedly granting new powers to spies. This led to abuse, notably in the case of Dr Mohamed Haneef, where Dr Haneef was accused of providing support to a terrorist organisation on very flimsy evidence. He had his visa revoked, a move later deemed unlawful. In 2008 an inquiry investigating the case recommended a number of reforms, none of which have been implemented.
The announcement of an ex-ASIO Chief of Staff to head up the Attorney-General’s department is likely to bring a ramping-up of the assault on civil liberties seen under the Howard Government with, once again, no chance for input from the general public. Until significant pressure is brought to bear on the major parties for their bipartisan assault on civil liberties, the erosion of rights that were once taken for granted will continue to wither away.
[1] http://www.news.com.au/national/breaking-news/former-asio-head-to-run-ag-office/story-e6frfku9-1226741903346
[2] http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/australian-spies-in-global-deal-to-tap-undersea-cables-20130828-2sr58.html
[3] http://www.smh.com.au/it-pro/security-it/australia-collecting-data-for-nsa-leaks-show-20131015-hv24k.html
[4] http://www.zdnet.com/au/snowden-manning-not-whistleblowers-australian-attorney-general-7000019310/