Greens Successfully Move Motion to Establish Inquiry into Internet Surveillance
Thursday 16 January 2014 @ 9.32 a.m. | Torts, Damages & Civil Liability
After several failed attempts, the Greens have successfully moved a motion in the Senate to establish a formal inquiry into Internet surveillance. The review will focus on the controversial Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 (Cth).
The Greens had been calling since November 2012 for the government to hold a wide-ranging inquiry into Australia's electronic surveillance activities, especially with the recent controversies surrounding former NSA contractor and whistleblower Edward Snowden.
Greens Senator Scott Ludlam said in a speech to the Senate in the final weeks of sitting in December 2012 that other major countries have already initiated inquiries following the Snowden affair.
The Greens have made several unsuccessful attempts over the past several months to get an inquiry into surveillance practices by Australian intelligence and law enforcement agencies through the Senate.
“The complicity of silence about surveillance in Australia broke today when we opened up an opportunity for Australian experts, agencies and individuals to participate in a conversation of what surveillance is necessary and proportionate,” said Greens Senator Scott Ludlam in a statement.
“A review of the deeply flawed Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act is well overdue. Amended no less than 45 times since the events of 11 September 2001, it is the tool used to bug and snoop on Australians. Since 2007 warrantless surveillance of Australians through access to telecommunications data has been possible, with requests of nearly 300,000 in the last financial year...The scope and reach of the laws were unprecedented, and included extraordinary powers of surveillance, detention and restriction and censorship on speech. This is a welcome first step to rein in surveillance overreach."
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