Category: Freedom of Speech

Freedom of speech

Pirate Party Perturbed by Assange Extradition Verdict

Posted on

Pirate Party Australia are perturbed at yesterday’s ruling by the UK Supreme Court to extradite Julian Assange to Sweden. Contrary to the ignorant prejudicial opinions of Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, he has not been charged with any criminal offence in Sweden or any other country, yet has been held for over 500 days under house arrest.

“The Australian Government’s continued and willful ignorance of US intentions to extradite Mr. Assange, an Australian citizen, possibly on the grounds of espionage and conspiracy, is completely unacceptable. The government must be more active in seeking to ensure the safety of Mr. Assange,” said Simon Frew, Deputy President of Pirate Party Australia. “Our continued alliance with the United States should not be at the expense of the rights of Australian citizens.”

“While the case remains somewhat up in the air, it seems very likely he will face extradition to Sweden,” Mr Frew continued. “There are a number of concerning issues with the legal process. The Supreme Court used the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, a document regarding the interpretation and operation of treaties between states, as a basis in their determination. This had not been raised by either side during the proceedings of the appeal. Legal analysis seems to indicate this may give Mr. Assange and his team opportunity to re-open the case.” 

Read More

Pirate Party Furious at Attorney-General’s “Super Warrant” Proposal

Posted on

Pirate Party Australia is furious that the Attorney-General’s Department is considering expansive additions to Australia’s already overbearing ‘security theatre’ operations[1].

The Attorney-General’s Department is proposing a “super warrant” system that can grant ASIO sweeping investigative powers for six months. This currently requires much greater judicial oversight.

“It seems to now be a weekly occurrence that the Government adds a new act to its ‘security theatre’. If the Gillard government cares so dearly about citizen input, why were expansive changes to the ASIO Act – changes that would potentially allow ASIO to target Wikileaks – pushed through last May without public inquiry?” questioned Brendan Molloy, Secretary of Pirate Party Australia.

Read More

Censorship is never a positive outcome, says Pirate Party

Posted on

Pirate Party Australia is bemused by the remarks of Senator Steven Conroy, Communications Minister, who recently remarked that he sees “a very positive outcome” for the future of Internet censorship in Australia[1].

Senator Conroy’s remarks come at a time when Australia’s telecommunications industry has become increasingly cautious of publicly commenting on any of the current regulatory issues being addressed, particularly any preliminary results from the Interpol filter testing underway by Optus, Telstra and a few smaller ISPs.

The Party maintains their stance that there should be no requirement to filter the Internet, but that families and private network operators should be given information on how to install client-end filters if necessary. They also reiterate the technical flaws that filtering has, particularly the ease with which it can be circumvented[2].

Read More

Pirate Party Disgusted By Rampant Government Secrecy

Posted on

Pirate Party Australia condemns the actions of Attorney-General Nicola Roxon, who has refused to release documents regarding mass starvation in East Timor, despite the fact that they are up to 37 years old[1].

Revelations that the documents could “reveal Australian complicity in concealing the mass starvation of 100,000 East Timorese” highlights the real need for governmental transparency and accountability that the Party continues to advocate. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is responsible for requesting Ms Roxon deny the release, claiming that it would be contrary to the national interest. The effect the documents would have on ties between Australia and Indonesia are minimal, claims former Army intelligence officer Clinton Fernandes[2].

Pirate Party Australia holds that the continual secrecy and outright refusal of government institutions to release documents is a serious threat to Australian democracy, and must be curbed immediately. They wish to draw attention to the opacity of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) and Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) negotiations, where citizens globally were only able to inspect documents that were leaked, and no official drafts have been made public.

Read More

Pirate Party Australia’s Presentation to Trans-Pacific Partnership Stakeholders Meeting in Melbourne

Posted on

Here is the speech that was presented by Pirate Party Australia President David Campbell at 11.45am at the TPPA stakeholders meeting in Melbourne. Thanks to Simon Frew (Deputy President) for authoring the speech and Mozart Palmer (Media Relations) for his contributions.

Pirate Party Australia, like many other attendees at the intellectual property section of this Agreement negotiation, first became aware of the proposed intellectual property provisions of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement when the United States negotiating position was leaked last year.[1]

Much of the content of the leak is a wish-list for old media corporations who refuse to adapt to the Internet and instead pay massive “donations” to their government in order to push their legislative agenda against the interests of modern society. This wish-list echoes that of the intellectual property segments of the Stop Online Piracy Act – known as SOPA – and the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement – known as ACTA. The US TPPA provisions have been nicknamed “the son of ACTA”. The proposed solutions to online file-sharing will fundamentally change the operation of the Internet, to its detriment.

The extreme position of the leaked United States’ Intellectual Property chapter is highlighted by the unprecedented request for the negotiating texts to remain secret for four years after the agreement is signed. This secrecy is a perversion of democracy. The public would not be given a chance to oppose such a draconian attack on both the Internet and the civil liberties of citizens in all of the signatory countries. All of this to protect the corporate interests of a small sector of one industry? What about the cost to our democratic rights?

Read More