Earlier this week, the Copyright Amendment Act 2018 passed both houses of Parliament with members from the Liberals, Nationals, Labor and Greens all speaking out in support. Despite attempts by lobby groups to push the bill through without consultation, a two week period was given for the public to offer submissions. Pirate Party Australia joined with Electronic Frontiers Australia, Australian Digital Alliance, Google, Internet Association of Australia, Digital Industry Group, Communications Alliance and Dr. Matthew Rimmer to criticise this bill. Together we represented a wide cross-section of tech sector and civil society bodies.

We raised multiple critical concerns with the bill, including an expansionary terminology and critical lack of judicial oversight, which will lead to insidious degrees of government-endorsed censorship in Australia by private corporations. Our previous press release covering this amendment can be found here[1] and the full text of our inquiry submission here[2].

We are particularly disappointed by the position taken by the Federal Greens who, while criticising the site blocking provisions, joined with elected members of the Australian Labor Party and Coalition to support passage of the bill. We have consistently endorsed the position of former Greens Senator Scott Ludlam with his support for fair use copyright reform and in opposing creeping surveillance. We hope his resignation does not represent a reversal of the Green’s pro-technology policies.

Pirate Party Australia will continue to fight for access to culture and media by the people of Australia. Unlike the Labor, Liberal, National and Green parties we will not offer business sponsored platitudes, but rather a position endorsed by the Productivity Commission, tech sector and humans rights activists. Say no to censorship, say no to site blocking, say no to copyright protectionism, say yes to #votepirate!

[1] https://pirateparty.org.au/2018/11/21/pirate-party-australia-defends-your-internet-against-copyright-lobby-censorship/
[2] https://www.aph.gov.au/DocumentStore.ashx?id=3d0605d4-b614-49d4-965f-4f1950a46cd2&subId=662874
Further reading: https://www.computerworld.com.au/article/650190/greens-back-government-expansion-website-blocking-scheme/