Australian Attorney General Pushes Ahead With Gov't Web Snooping 148
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 (Score:5, Interesting)
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! (Score:4, Interesting)
At least they're doing it in the open (Score:3, Interesting)
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 (Score:5, Interesting)
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! (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:I find this hard to believe (Score:4, Interesting)
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 (Score:2, Interesting)
the capture likely wouldn't include data for "politically exposed persons".
Re:I find this hard to believe (Score:3, Interesting)
Seriously, why the fuck do we still even have an Attorney General position.
Re:Translation (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Translation (Score:2, Interesting)
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.