Entire Australian Web to be Monitored and Whistleblowers to be Jailed

September 25th, 2014

In terms of the surveillance side of this, I guess that they want to be able to have a legal framework for what has been going on for decades.

Via: Sydney Morning Herald:

Australian spies will soon have the power to monitor the entire Australian internet with just one warrant, and journalists and whistleblowers will face up to 10 years’ jail for disclosing classified information.

The government’s first tranche of tougher anti-terrorism bills, which will beef up the powers of the domestic spy agency ASIO, passed the Senate by 44 votes to 12 on Thursday night with bipartisan support from Labor.

The bill, the National Security Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 1) 2014, will now be sent to the House of Representatives, where passage is all but guaranteed on Tuesday at the earliest.

Anyone – including journalists, whistleblowers and bloggers – who “recklessly” discloses “information … [that] relates to a special intelligence operation” faces up to 10 years’ jail.

Any operation can be declared “special” by an authorised ASIO officer.

Posted in Covert Operations, Dictatorship, Surveillance, Technology | Top Of Page

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