The Morrison Government has today rushed through a new law creating sweeping surveillance powers, ignoring crucial recommendations of the bipartisan Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security that stronger safeguards are needed to protect the privacy of all Australians.

The Surveillance Legislation Amendment (Identify and Disrupt) Bill contains unprecedented powers for the Australian Federal Police and Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission to monitor online activity, takeover accounts and disrupt data.

In evidence given to the Committee, the Human Rights Law Centre raised concerns about the Bill’s proportionality and lack of safeguards, particularly given its potential use against journalists and whistleblowers.

In early August, the Committee – chaired by Liberal Senator James Paterson – recommended dozens of changes be made to the proposed law. The Committee accepted a number of the concerns of the Human Rights Law Centre and civil society stakeholders, proposing narrower criteria for the use of these new powers and stronger oversight mechanisms.

But the Morrison Government has rejected or only partially-adopted approximately half of the Committee’s recommendations and rushed the new law through the Parliament.

Kieran Pender, Senior Lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre, said:

“Every increase in state surveillance has a democratic cost. Overbroad surveillance powers impact the privacy of all Australians and have a chilling effect on journalists and whistleblowers.

“Given the powers are unprecedented and extraordinarily intrusive, they should have been narrowed to what is strictly necessary and subject to robust safeguards. That is why the Committee unanimously recommended significant changes.

“It is alarming that, instead of accepting the Committee’s recommendations and allowing time for scrutiny of subsequent amendments, the Morrison Government rushed these laws through Parliament in less than 24 hours.”

One improvement to the law, called for by the Human Rights Law Centre, are greater safeguards to prevent the improper use of these laws against whistleblowers and journalists. A judge or tribunal member must consider the public interest in the work of journalists and their interaction with whistleblowers before permitting police to use these new powers against a journalist.

“While the safeguards for journalists and whistleblowers are welcome, they highlight the lack of wider entrenched safeguards for press freedom and free speech in Australia. By enacting wide-ranging surveillance and secrecy laws in the absence of federal human rights laws, successive governments have put the cart before the horse. Australians urgently need protections for fundamental human rights like a Charter of Human Rights.”

Read the Human Rights Law Centre’s Submission to the PJCIS.

Media contact:

Michelle Bennett, Engagement Director, 0419 100 519, michelle.bennett@hrlc.org.au