Category: Transparency

Government and corporation transparency and accountability

Major parties fail to keep step with the digital reality

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Following Shadow Attorney-General George Brandis’ comments that the Liberal/National Party has not formed policy positions on mandatory data retention and copyright law[1], Pirate Party Australia calls the major parties out on their sluggishness. While these issues do not make good tabloid fodder, they cut to the heart of our modern, digitally connected society. Neither major party has taken a firm position on these issues that have an enormous impact on privacy and culture.

“With surveillance, data retention and copyright reform being significant issues at the moment, it is simply not good enough for the two major parties to drag their feet,” said Brendan Molloy, lead Pirate Party Senate candidate for NSW. “A policy set cannot be comprehensive and suitable for modern Australia if it fails to address the very real threat that data retention poses to our privacy. Given the amount of data that Australians provide over the Internet daily, protections are needed, and regardless of which party forms government after this election, we need their cards on the table now.”

“There have been massive shifts globally with regard to copyright laws, and the Australian Law Reform Commission is set to release a set of recommendations to make Australia’s copyright laws more appropriate for a digital environment. We urge both major parties to seriously consider these recommendations, rather than ignore them as was done to the Copyright Law Review Committee in 1996.”

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Pirate Party slams Attorney-General for whistleblower comments

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Pirate Party Australia is stunned by the Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, who in a speech to the Security Government conference in Canberra claimed that Edward Snowden and Bradley Manning did not release information related to government ‘wrongdoing.’ The Attorney-General stated that neither are whistleblowers for this reason[1].

“The Attorney-General appears to have forgotten that the ‘Collateral Murder’ video released by Manning clearly shows US pilots firing on civilians in Iraq[2],” said Brendan Molloy, lead Senate candidate in NSW. “What exactly does Mr Dreyfus mean when he says ‘government wrongdoing’? The US President is, as head of government, commander-in-chief of the United States military — is killing civilians not an act of government wrongdoing?”

“Surely covering up mistakes is not the mark of a transparent and competent government that shows respect for the electorate? The secret surveillance programs undertaken by the US National Security Agency do not foster trust between the state and the citizen, and undermines the very fabric of modern democracy.”

The Party believes that while a certain amount of surveillance is necessary, it should have judicial oversight in the form of a warrant, and should only be targeted at those in the warrant. There is nothing wrong with limited telecommunications interception powers being exercised in this manner, but the Australian Government’s approach has been dubious at best.

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Government Shifting Power Away From People

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This is an opinion piece authored by Simon Frew, President of Pirate Party Australia. It has been sent to ABC’s The Drum for publication.

The balance of power between citizens and the state is shifting on a number of fronts. On one hand, government agencies are becoming increasingly secretive, exemplified by recent recommendations to the Attorney-General’s Department to reduce access to government documents through Freedom of Information (FOI) legislation. On the other hand, there is increasing surveillance of citizens and a continual, rapid growth in the reach of security agencies.

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Pirate Party disturbed by Manning conviction

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Pirate Party Australia finds the guilty verdicts handed down in the case of prominent whistleblower, US Pfc Bradley Manning, to be deeply disturbing. Fortunately for the former US Army Private, Mr Manning was found not guilty of aiding the enemy, a bittersweet victory for both himself and journalistic integrity[1].

Mr Manning provided a wealth of classified material, including the infamous ‘Collateral Murder’ video portraying the murder of 11 unarmed civilians in Baghdad, including two Reuters’ journalists, in 2007[2]. The release of this video, among other material, elevated WikiLeaks from relative obscurity to one of the most well known and controversal journalistic organisations in the world today.

Pirate Party Australia is of the opinion that, in light of the war crimes exposed, the revelations of government corruption, and the evidence of a deliberate, systematic misinformation campaign targeted at the public, Bradley Manning should have been acquitted of all charges. Mr Manning has been held in conditions that have been publicly condemned by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture for three years before finally being sentenced. His treatment has been described by the Rapporteur as “cruel, inhuman and degrading” and prejudicial to the presumption of innocence[3].

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Pirate Party, Greens and others to hold pro-privacy rallies

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In the aftermath of revelations that the US National Security Agency has been operating an extensive clandestine surveillance program known as PRISM, Pirate Party Australia and other organisations will be holding rallies around the country this Saturday in protest against the ever-growing surveillance state.

“As citizens of a democratic country, we must take care that our democracy stays strong, and that the relationship betweens our branches of government remains balanced. Secret mass surveillence by its very nature denies that balance because it prevents oversight,” said David Campbell, President of Pirate Party Australia and Senate candidate for NSW. “We must make sure that what has been occuring in the United States is not replicated here.”

The existence of such surveillance is less concerning to Pirate Party Australia than the fact that it was needlessly kept secret. There is speculation that Australian intelligence agencies may be implicated in the surveillance program or have had access to the data collected[1]. Last month, Senator Scott Ludlam raised a motion in the Senate to compel the Attorney-General, Mark Dreyfus, to describe the extent to which Australia had been involved in or aware of PRISM. The motion was defeated[2].

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