Furthermore, ASIO and the AFP already have the power to infiltrate end-user computers to surveil before data is even encrypted, so it is hard to see the justification for further powers. At Policy Forum, Monique Mann, a law lecturer at the Queensland University of Technology, writes, "There is no evidence that any new powers are necessary, or proportionate, when viewed against existing police powers and investigative capabilities. Yet the stakes could not be higher for cybersecurity and digital rights."
There is also some skepticism of how the requirements of the law would hold up in Australian business dealings with companies from other countries where data rights and online privacy are more legally protected. Of course, with a backdoor-that's-not-a-backdoor, created by the government's exploitation of systemic vulnerabilities, no one would really know, including the provider, if their data had been decrypted. And though a warrant issued by court is required to go ahead with a decryption, if America's FISA court, which essentially rubberstampsgovernment requests for secret access, is any example, such court-ordered warrants from Australian judges is no re-assurance -- Australia has no Bill of Rights underwriting the integrity of such requests.
Regarding the global precedent set by Australia's willingness to be a model for future fascist governance (see the interrogation scene from The Lives of Others to understand how fascists respond to being called fascists), Monique Mann adds,
The enforcement of criminal laws in other countries may mean international requests for data will be funneled through Australia as the "weakest-link" of our Five Eyes allies. This is because Australia has no enforceable human rights protections at the federal level.
Similarly, Australia will be there to genuflect for the Asian Pivot, even with the risk of being considered an American vanguard, and not without consequence.
Along the lines of human rights and governmental accountability (a cornerstone of a functioning democracy), the new law allows not just the targeting of the usual criminals, such as "child pornographers" and "scam artists," as well as so-called "terrorists," but also whistleblowers. In short, the law would help prevent someone in Australia from dumping files at, say, WikiLeaks, or even submitting documentation supporting government abuses to a whistleblowing site in Australia, if said potential exposure could be seen to "weaken" national security.
This is what happened about a year ago when the offices of the ABC were raided because the publicly-funded broadcaster was working on a story that would exposed alleged Australian military atrocities in Afghanistan. Among other sells to the public, was the notion that we mustn't soil the legacy of the Diggers of a 100 years past (Gallipoli), and Aussie soldiers are considered Diggers, just as all citizens, Left or Right, are "mates." Not really, but that's how it gets played by the pollies. The ABC was forced to give up computers and data information on the spot - no legal recourse.
Perhaps the world's greatest champion of encryption, and its power to protect privacy, is that over-exposed guy languishing in Belmarsh Prison in London. He rejects the common notion that such laws have no bearing on the doings of everyday people and scoffs at "if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear" arguments often expressed with a naive smugness. "No worries, I use a VPN," they might smile. But VPNs can be just as vulnerable.
It's almost ironical that Assange, who grew up in Australia and cut his hacker's teeth here (breaking-and-entering secret Pentagon servers as a teen), is now a virtual exile (his work would be criminalized here and has been called "illegal" in the past by a prime minister and, more recently, the present PM has called for him to "face the music") who has almost single-handedly fought a war against the dark, corrupt secrets of government, while also attempting to protect individual privacy, the core of our humanity.
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