Category: Human Rights

Over 2,500 petitioners agree that graduated response is flawed

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Pirate Party Australia is pleased at the groundswell of support received so far for its Change.org petition launched yesterday in response to anti-piracy measures being considered by the Australian Government[1]. The proposals being discussed in Cabinet are aimed at placating corporate interests using measures that are ineffective and serve only to intrude on consumers’ rights. Specifically, the graduated response (“three strikes”) proposal under consideration has been shown by several studies to be ineffective at reducing copyright infringement. Pirate Party Australia’s petition is directed to the Senate, and calls on Senators to reject legislation that would institute a graduated response regime.

“A ‘three strikes’ policy, or any graduated response scheme, has been shown to be ineffective according to a research paper by Rebecca Giblin of Monash University’s Faculty of Law[2][3],” commented Pirate Party Australia spokesperson Michael Keating. “The HADOPI scheme that was rushed through the French Parliament has been abandoned after costing the French Government €12 million per year and resulting in just one person being fined[4][5][6]. Such measures were campaigned against by several organisations including the Featured Artists Coalition, which recognised the potential problems and ineffectiveness of the law[7].

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Data Retention Directive invalid says EU Court

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In an enormous victory for privacy, the Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled that the EU’s Data Retention Directive is invalid. Under Directive 2006/24/EC, member states of the European Union were required to store telecommunications data for at least six months, and for as long as 24 months. The press release announcing the judgment states that “the directive interferes in a particularly serious manner with the fundamental rights to respect for private life and to the protection of personal data.”[1]

Pirate Party Australia cautioned against introducing data retention into Australia in its submission to the comprehensive revision of the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 in February[2]. Earlier, in 2012, the Attorney-General’s Department proposed the introduction of a six-month data retention regime among other reforms to national security legislation[3]. The Pirate Party believes that the ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union validates its opposition to data retention.

“We have raised every concern regarding data retention that the Court of Justice of the European Union has in this judgment,” said Mozart Olbrycht-Palmer, Deputy Secretary of Pirate Party Australia and co-author of the Pirate Party’s submission. “This ruling is a comprehensive criticism of data retention, and a validation of our long-held position. The Court has recognised that telecommunications data poses an enormous threat to privacy if retained. Telecommunications data reveals who you spoke to, when you spoke to them, and where you were. It is a means of tracking the entire population.”

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Pirate Party Calls for Human Rights to be Respected on Manus Island

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Following the escape of detainees at the Manus Island Detention Facility that resulted in the death of one asylum seeker, Pirate Party Australia supports the call by Amnesty International for an independent investigation into the incident[1]. The Pirate Party also calls on the Government to seek humane alternatives to mandatory detention that encourage the proper treatment of asylum seekers in the region. The situation is of particular concern as there have been reports of Papua New Guinean police and locals attacking the fleeing escapees[2].

The scale of the riots and the magnitude of the breakdown in our handling and processing systems are unprecedented, and a full investigation is warranted. Pirate Party Australia objects to the concentration camp conditions which led to the rioting, and is critical of both the current and previous governments’ approach to asylum seekers.

“People should not die when seeking asylum,” commented Melanie Thomas, Deputy President of Pirate Party Australia. “Regardless of whether they are genuine refugees or not — though almost all asylum seekers are genuine refugees — we should never be in a situation where those in our care are killed. It is simply not good enough that we are subjecting asylum seekers to conditions that could result, and now have resulted, in their deaths.

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The Day We Fight Back

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Pirate Party Australia is joining other activist organisations and political parties around the world today to protest the mass surveillance regime that has been exposed through leaks from whistleblower and US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.

Websites around the world will blacken or display a banner on Tuesday 11th (and Wednesday 12th, Australian time) February as part of a global day of action against mass surveillance.

We in Australia are joining in this global effort to pressure our lawmakers to end mass surveillance — of Australians and of the citizens of other countries.

Together, and in the name of Aaron Swartz, we are pushing back against powers that seek to observe, collect, and analyse our every digital action.

Dragnet surveillance is not compatible with democratic governance and new rules must be set to protect privacy in the digital age.

As well as a comprehensive review of current mass surveillance activities, we are calling for:

  1. An end to warrantless access to telecommunications data
  2. A new agreement governing information-sharing between the ‘Five Eyes’ powers (US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand) that provides meaningful protections for individuals’ privacy
  3. Extending the Freedom of Information Act and the reporting requirements of the Telecommunications Interception and Access Act to cover intelligence and security agencies
  4. A requirement for service providers to inform customers of any arrangements that are in place to provide personal information to governments.

“The global surveillance system exposed by Edward Snowden isn’t just about the NSA, the Australian Signals Directorate has been implicated too[1]. Both major parties have been tight lipped because they support the destruction of our privacy” said Simon Frew, President of Pirate Party Australia. “We need safeguards to protect our civil liberties. Just because the technology is there to cheaply spy on every person who uses a computer or mobile phone, it does not mean that it should happen. Democracy requires privacy and the surveillance regime the government has signed up to under the Five Eyes program is a direct assault on the civil liberties of everyone.”

“It is important that we all continue to oppose the surveillance state and fight to win back our privacy. Pirate Party Australia believes that the government needs to be transparent about what is done in our name as secrecy breeds corruption, and the Liberal government has made secrecy its standard mode of operation. Citizens need privacy to be able to speak freely, criticise injustice and hold the government to account. The surveillance regime exposed by Edward Snowden shows a fundamental shift in the relationship between people and the state. The balance needs to be turned back the other way. Today we fight back,” Mr Frew concluded.

Join us on 11th (and 12th) February to show your opposition to mass surveillance by darkening your website and adding a banner. Instructions and more information are available at http://thedaywefightback.org.au.

[1] http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/02/revealed-australian-spy-agency-offered-to-share-data-about-ordinary-citizens

Asylum seekers do not deserve concentration camp conditions

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Refugees on Manus Island are being held in conditions Amnesty International has described as “cruel, inhuman, degrading and violating prohibitions against torture.”[1] The report details the experience of approximately 1,100 male asylum seekers in the Manus Island detention centre. Pirate Party Australia is critical of the current approach and calls for a regional solution to the issue of refugees that upholds human rights and treats asylum seekers with dignity.

Among some of the issues raised by Amnesty International are the lack of adequate drinking water, absence of basic hygiene, nonexistent shade and shelter, and insufficient toilet and shower facilities. As a nation that has prided itself on adherence to human rights, common decency, quality medical treatment and the concept of a fair go, Australia’s treatment of refugees is shameful and represents a new low in modern Australian history.

“If our government is going to insist on maintaining a regime of offshore detention for asylum seekers, then they must treat the detainees in a manner that is better than vindictive torture. If we continue a course of action that detains refugees in tropical climates, the very least we can do is ensure that the conditions we subject them to are not going to make them sick, disabled, mentally ill or at risk of death because we cannot even give them the basic necessities to cope with such a climate. We as a nation are surely better than that,” said Brendan Molloy, Councillor of Pirate Party Australia.

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