“We at Pirate Party Australia welcome the news that a legal challenge is being mounted over the BRCA1 breast cancer gene and we hope that the case will be a catalyst for laws to expressly forbid patents on genetic materials. Patents on any genetic material raise large ethical questions, and there are severe implications for the future of scientific research involved in granting monopolies for what are essentially naturally occuring mutations, in naturally occurring genes.” said Party Secretary, Rodney Serkowski.
Category: Press Release
Press releases
Recently NSW Stateline[1] observed the inter-agency group Crimtrac give a presentation on the future of policing, which involved the implementation of new and hi-tech surveillance methods and the development and use of databases containing biometric data.
“The story highlighted the push by law enforcement to get access to more surveillance powers, continuing the degradation of the privacy of Australian citizens,” said Simon Frew, a spokesperson of Pirate Party Australia.
“The move to postpone mandatory Internet censorship legislation by the Labor government is testament to the unpopularity of the legislation.[1] However it in no way represents a victory for the Open Internet campaign with Senator Conroy’s spokeperson maintaining that the government remains steadfast in their goal to push through legislation that will create a state sponsored Internet censorship infrastructure” said Party Secretary, Rodney Serkowski.
He continued “This delay is a cynical move to minimise the effect that this terrible, misguided and ill-conceived policy will have in the polls. We plan to continue to raise awareness, and remind voters of the intent of the Labor government to pursue this policy. Politicians must understand that attempting to implement a censorship infrastructure of the nature proposed in a liberal democracy is electoral poison.”
The Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT) has unsurprisingly come out in support of a graduated response mechanism, better known as ‘Three Strikes’, in their war on sharing.[1]
“Pirate Party Australia completely rejects the implementation of any system that disconnects account holders from the Internet, increasingly the most important platform for communication and political discourse today, upon allegation of infringement, without full judicial oversight and due process. Mechanisms like this will see entire households disconnected, upon an allegation from an industry association.” said Party Secretary, Rodney Serkowski.
At 5:30PM on April 1st, Activists protesting against the Rudd Government’s proposed Mandatory Internet Filter will gather in Hyde Park Sydney to speak out against Government Censorship.
One of the organisers of the protest and member of Pirate Party Australia, Simon Frew, said. “I think it is outrageous that the government has the audacity to force this filter on a supposedly free society. This is the sort of censorship you would expect of China or Iran, and it is being roundly condemned by the US State Department and Google for good reason.”
“Adding Wikileaks to the blacklist is a good example of how the Rudd government can and will abuse its power for its own political agenda.” Mr Frew continued. “Once censorship infrastructure is in place, it could easily be expanded to cover other politically sensitive material by successive governments. This needs to be stopped before it is started.”
“Our plan for the action is to take part in distributed street theatre. We will be fanning out across the city, wearing gags to symbolise being censored. Each group of people being censored will be accompanied by a ‘normal’ person who will distribute information leaflets to the public.”
“The idea for this action is to bring attention to how censorship is going to affect our lives once the Mandatory Internet Filter is in place. Hopefully some people will end up with a flyer in their hand and their interest sparked.” Mr Frew said. “We hope to create an action that is fun for the participants, as well as a bit of a spectacle that gets people talking.”