Controversial anti-terrorism laws expected to pass in the Senate as early as this week will give spy agency ASIO the power to monitor the entire internet, the government has confirmed. It comes as Greens senator Scott Ludlam urged senators to reconsider their vote on the National Security Legislation Amendment Bill (No.1) 2014, which is likely to pass the senate either this week or early next week. I think this Parliament is being bullied to pass something in the heat of a national security crisis that we will later regret, as we regretted an earlier tranche of legislation that we passed in 2005, Senator Scott Ludlam told Fairfax Media on Wednesday evening, before debate was due to commence. The legislation has been labelled as urgent by Attorney-General George Brandis. Australian Lawyers Association president Greg Barns said the new laws would allow ASIO to conduct surveillance on anyone, any time, anywhere. There are few, if any, limits now, he said. And we dont have sufficient privacy protections. We have no tort of privacy, meaning we cant sue ASIO or anyone else if they invade our privacy in a gross sense or if they use [that information] illegally. You have no course of redress. So far only the Greens and Liberal Democratic Party senator David Leyonhjelm have said they will oppose the bill. Labor has said they will support it as has the Palmer United Party. This means the bill will pass even with cross-bench opposition. The legislation redefines what ASIO can access under a computer warrant.
Posted on: Tue, 30 Sep 2014 23:51:10 +0000