Pirate Party Australia – Page 55 of 76 – Pirate Party Australia is a political party based around the core tenets of freedom of information and culture; civil and digital liberties; privacy and anonymity; government transparency; and participatory democracy.

The deadline for submissions to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security’s (PJCIS) Inquiry into potential reforms of National Security Legislation was August 20, and today, PJCIS allowed for the publication of submissions. Pirate Party Australia submitted a comprehensive response to the discussion paper.

In the lengthy submission the Party comments on many points in the discussion paper, including:

Strongly objecting to penalties for individuals who refuse to assist in decrypting information or provide their passwords, eroding a person’s right to avoid self-incrimination;
Strongly objecting to keeping all Internet users’ browsing and email history for two years, introducing an arbitrary violation of privacy; and
Suggesting adding controls to various powers that certain agencies have to breach individuals’ privacy.

Pirate Party Raises Concerns about Cybercrime Bill Imbalance

Posted on August 23, 2012

As the Cybercrime Legislation Amendment Bill 2011 has recently passed, the Pirate Party continues to advocate the limitation of surveillance to court-ordered specific cases where reasonable grounds for suspicion are provided.

Pirate Party Australia has previously recommended in 2011 that Australia does not accede to the Convention on Cybercrime due to it being “fundamentally unbalanced”[1].

“In our submissions regarding the Convention of Cybercrime and the recent National Security Inquiry, we argued – and will continue to argue – against overly intrusive schemes which would unduly put at risk the privacy of Australian citizens,” said David W. Campbell, President of Pirate Party Australia.

Pirate Party Demands Inquiry into Assange Abandonment

Posted on August 17, 2012

Pirate Party Australia are ecstatic over the decision of the Ecuadorian Government to provide political asylum to Australian journalist Julian Assange, editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, a whistleblower-centric media organisation.

The Party remains extremely dissatisfied with the Australian Government’s lack of support for the journalist. Mr. Assange was to be extradited from the United Kingdom to Sweden for questioning over sexual abuse allegations, but broke his bail conditions by applying for asylum and staying at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

“Why has Ecuador, a nation with a poor record for respecting press freedom[1][2], accepted an asylum application from an Australian citizen, while our own government has continually refused to provide any form of assistance to Julian Assange?” asked David W. Campbell, President of Pirate Party Australia.

DFAT Correspondence Regarding Australia-Japan Free Trade Agreement

Posted on August 16, 2012

Pirate Party Australia sent an email to DFAT in June to ascertain what provisions will be included in the Australia-Japan Free Trade Agreement. Today, two months later, we received a response.

It states that AJFTA will include an intellectual property chapter, and as per usual, have decided to keep all negotiations completely secret.

Pirate Party Warns about Aggressive Surveillance Trends

Posted on August 14, 2012

Pirate Party Australia is deeply concerned about the increasing international trend of widescale surveillance, such as the possible implementation of the Trapwire surveillance system in Australia, due to the significant potential for abuse.

Yesterday, the Sydney Morning Herald revealed[1] ties between a government contractor and a company manufacturing sophisticated surveillance equipment that claims to detect “suspicious activity”, which ultimately means activity that marks a person as suspicious without the person actually committing any crime. To increase its efficiency, the system collects information from its multiple installations and combines it, even across borders.

“These systems claim to detect ‘pre-crime’ activities and tag individuals as suspects automatically. Such systems, when deployed in the public space, are an encroachment on the privacy of the users of public spaces,” said David W. Campbell, President of Pirate Party Australia. “They have the effect of suppressing the legitimate activities of law abiding individuals, who become justifiably worried about being mislabelled and prosecuted.”