From Bernard Keane at Crikey today on the Abbott Government’s release of the data retention bill:
…there’s no actual detail in the data retention bill. Brandis himself acknowledged this, saying it was a short bill, “just 47 pages”. That’s because the technical detail of what, specifically, the data that telcos and ISPs will need to retain is, isn’t explained. That’s to be left to regulations. Why? Well, with regulations it’s easier to add to the list of data later, without legislation. But it’s mostly because the government still doesn’t know what data it wants retained — even though AGD has been working on this issue since 2008 at least. There has been an industry consultation process underway in recent months to nail down the detail about metadata — and that process isn’t anywhere near finished. That’s why this morning’s introduction took the industry by surprise (and some in the industry were very surprised and very angry). Instead, the government will establish a “working group” to finalise that consultation process while JCIS considers the bill.
Quite how JCIS [Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security] is supposed to adequately assess the bill when the crucial definition of data and details around the implementation of the scheme are missing isn’t clear. And they are crucial, as iiNet has explained in detail.
…What we do know, courtesy of AFP Commissioner Andrew Colvin sticking his police boot deep inside his mouth at the data retention media conference, is that data retention will also be used to pursue filesharing, at the behest of copyright industries and their minions — an admission the government has been at pains to stay away from.
…Fortunately it’s only our basic rights to free speech, a free press and a functioning democracy in which the powerful can be held to account, that are at stake. Otherwise, you might be worried about how our leaders do things.
Apparently, Labor is now questioning the bill having previously welcomed it with open arms. But let’s not forget that it previously tried to get a similar bill up via Stephen Conroy:
However, Labor does have a checkered history on this issue, suggesting it too cannot be trusted. For years, former Labor Communications Minister, Senator Conroy, championed greater censorship and controls on internet use. Moreover, the Gillard Government drafted plans to require companies to store customer data for two years to make it easier for security agencies to check on an individual’s use of email, social media, the web and mobile phone services before backing down amid objections from civil libertarians and then shadow Communications Minister, Malcolm Turnbull.
The same guy that just launched the new bill. Fair dinkum!
To summarise, both sides of the aisle have lied and dissembled on the issue and now aim to make punters pay to have their own download data policed for the benefit of US corporations that the same Government is protecting from competition, and all of that hidden within highly questionable anti-liberal terrorism legislation.
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