Australian Attorney General Pushes Ahead With Gov't Web Snooping

CuteSteveJobs writes "Australian Attorney-General Nicola Roxon now fully backs a controversial plan to capture the online data of all Australians, despite only six weeks ago saying 'the case had yet to be made.' The Tax Office, the Federal Police and the Opposition all support it, with Liberal National Party MP Ross Vasta declaring 'the highest degree of scrutiny and diligence is called for.' With all major parties on board, web monitoring of all Australians appears to be inevitable."

Information wants to be free

[Anonymous Coward]

One country at a time, the governments are putting in place the function to collect all data so it can be freed by hackers.

Thanks, Australia!

[Mordok-DestroyerOfWo]

The fiance and I have been considering emigrating for a few years while we're still young enough to be of value to another nation (I'm 31 and she's 24). Looks like you made the decision that much easier. New Zealand is now ahead in the polls.

At least they're doing it in the open

[Anonymous Coward]

The US does it but says they aren't. Search for Project Echelon. Welcome to the supposedly-free world.

Re:I find this hard to believe

[iplayfast]

I can't wait for wikileaks to start posting private info from all the politicans that proposed this bill. ALL YOUR BASE and so on.

Re:Thanks, Australia!

[sdguero]

As an Californian that has spent some time in NZ, I suggest going there for more than a couple weeks before you take the plunge. Things that seem trivial during a 2-3 week vacation (like hardly anything staying open after 8PM, passive aggressive customer service, distaste for Americans, lack of culinary variety, etc) can start to grate on you after a few months. Just my experience...

Re:I find this hard to believe

[Nerdfest]

Two years? Right, like those people with access to this information won't make copies of something useful. ISP data should be treated the same as phone conversations and mail. Why the hell aren't they?

Re:I find this hard to believe

[Anonymous Coward]

the capture likely wouldn't include data for "politically exposed persons".

Re:I find this hard to believe

[anomaly256]

Frankly, I object to the entire notion of letting 1 single person have so much control and sway on our lives. It's completely batshit insane. I have no idea why people even /tolerate/ the office of Attorney General still. SO much awesome would come from this position not existing any more. For example, Australia would have an R18+ rating for video games already, causing mediocre titles like Syndicate to not be considered illegal contraband (yes thats right, video games that are common place and considered 'no big deal' in the rest of the world are actually, to this day, fucking illegal here because they have a bit more blood than some old fuddy-duddy likes. Yet somehow the God of War series, the most violent and graphics games I've ever seen, are ma15+ ??? Guess who's on the ratings review board - thats right, the AG. The AG's office controls the entire classification review board). Policies like this internet snooping would actually be forced to go through an analysis and vetting process, held up for scrutiny by both parties, debated and rationalized before being pushed into binding law. The AU ACTA and SOPA talk minutes would be public knowledge instead of being censored by the AG, who apparently doesn't even need court approval to do such things despite it having an immense impact on our laws.

Seriously, why the fuck do we still even have an Attorney General position.

Re:Translation

[anomaly256]

You forget that the Australian AG is in the pockets of the MPAA/RIAA who absolutely want this information by any means possible. You forget that the AG office completely own and controls the ratings review board here and makes copyright laws without court oversight.

Re:Translation

[Anonymous Coward]

It is a Cabinet post, so they are appointed nominally by the Governor General on the advice of the PM, who selects ministers based on personal and factional loyalty, the need to balance factions, seniority, and occasionally even competence. Ministers are selected from the MsP, which in practice means from the winning party of coalition. (IIRC, in Australia you actually have to be in Parliament to be a minister, unlike in the UK where anyone can be made a minister or added to cabinet without a portfolio.) I think there is a requirement that the law officers must be able to practice law.

Ministers can be sacked by the GG, but that never happens - either the PM will move her to another department, she'll resign, or she'll stay until Labor are voted out.
Whether a government lead by the Mad Monk would be an improvement is a rather difficult question - right now, I think the best that can be said for the ALP is that they are better than the other mob, but stepping in dog shit is better than having a bird crap on your head.