ASIO is not only fighting back against any restrictions on its work, it is actually calling for more spying powers. For example, when the Australian Law Reform Commission argued for the creation of a “public interest monitor” to assert some guidelines on intelligence gathering, ASIO said it “has reservations about this, if the effect would be simply to insert yet another approval step into the authorization of a TI warrant.” Meanwhile, the Australian Federal Police said it wanted to store data to ensure a national and systematic approach is taken to safeguarding the ongoing availability of telecommunications data for legitimate, investigative purposes. At the same time, however, it admitted work needed to be done to understand what type of data got retained and for how long. Electronic Frontiers Australia, the online rights group, is lobbying against the amendments, arguing that storing web meta-data was an ineffective method to curb terrorism. The ease with which data retention regimes can be evaded is grossly disproportionate to the cost and security concerns of the data retention regime, it said. Meanwhile, the Coalition governments Attorney-General George Brandis said on Monday that the government was not currently considering any proposal relating to data retention despite the push from the country’s intelligence agencies. Shadow Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said Labor was waiting for the Coalitions response to an inquiry that had opened in June of last year before it announces its position.
Posted on: Wed, 19 Mar 2014 10:24:25 +0000
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