The parliamentary inquiry that occurred yesterday, on the 1/11/12 encased a large perspective of views on the legislative changes the government is proposing to implement. We were gladly supported by some, and snubbed by others *cough AFP, cough*, needless to say we feel as though the hearing was ultimately a great success!
Firstly, we’d like to thank everyone for supporting our core beliefs and values with us, as privacy for Australia and our future generations to come is of the upmost importance to us. This further validates our need to keep our campaign going strong and letting as many people as possible know the major implications of letting the government put these reforms into action.
I’d like to thank the groups SAY, WATCH OUT and the Australian Journalism League especially for their similar efforts in attempting to bring about attention to this issue and their fervent efforts in raising awareness. We found all of the videos and campaigns from these groups to be particularly informative. We feel especially aligned with SAY, as they are also a passionate not for profit activist group that are not politically inclined and believe in our right to privacy as a basic human right. Their plan to build an Australia that ‘values economic fairness, social justice and economic sustainability’, is also a plan for our future that we want to see happen.
Check out their site here: http://erinjanedooley.wix.com/haveyoursay#!home/mainPage
I’d also like to mention that the AFP, did have a nicely set out presentation, but once again alluded from the facts of why it is actually necessary to implement these harsh security laws. Other things not mentioned was their alliance with ASIO and the acknowledgment that the many security breaches and terrorists attacks that have apparently been stopped in recent times by both the AFP and ASIO were indeed quite successful and did not need to invade the privacy of everyday Australian citizens in order to achieve their motives. They also mentioned that Internet providers should be responsible for holding and keeping safe all past data and records. We’d like to mention that of course these companies have no interest in this as is it only going to cost them extra money and time, something that no modern day company is going to willing do. This leads us to further question the safety of this information and the level of guard these companies will keep OUR private data in. Many instances of hackers hacking data, financial and personal details have occurred too many times for us to feel this as a safe enough option for matters that should just be kept private!
Thanks for reading guys, and continue to support us on the RAGE Facebook, Twitter and petition pages!
We would also like to thank Cybersafe for their presentation in the inquiry.
Our issue with the inquiry centers around cyber threat and its significance in today’s society. We by no means condole cyber crimes nor do we overlook any of then, and we certainty realise that there are people all over the world who have been affected by cyber crimes in a range of many different ways. We are not arguing that cyber crimes do not exist, but we are arguing that there is no clear evidence that there is a cyber threat large enough that it requires these sorts of proposed changes to the National Security Legislation. Various academic papers have been released, for example, Florencio’s and Herly’s 2011 ‘Sex, Lies and Cyber Crime Surveys’, which highlight how cyber crime is largely exaggerated in its estimates. Cyber crime is hard to police against, there is no denying that. However it is not nearly as hard to protect against- use a variety of complicated passwords, make backups, have virus protection, monitor their children’s internet usage and avoid pop ups and scams. We don’t need proposed changes to legislation to deal with these issues, educating the population is what is needed. Instead of spending millions of dollars on specific changes to the legislation, the government should spend the money raising awareness and informing society on how to prevent cyber threats from occurring.
Tanya and Afif
Ps. We will also soon be doing an interview on these issues on 103.3REBEL FM, so listen out!
RAGE - Rise Against Government Exploitation 