The TPP: what’s wrong with it?
As partner countries gathered in Canberra to hold more secret negotiations over the TPP, speakers at a protest outside Parliament House pointed out what is wrong with it. 22 Oct 2014
I could go to jail for this next month
ASIO is in the subterfuge game. That’s why they’re saying harsh anti-privacy laws are targeting jihadists. But that’s not the reason the laws were written. 26 Aug 2014
Data retention strips away your privacy
PISA (police, intelligence and security agencies) want to know everything about your data and you: Bernard Keane explains why that’s not such a reasonable idea. 26 July 2014
Nobody is watching the watchers
Australia’s securitazi are supposedly oversighted by independent agencies and MPs, but in reality nobody closely supervises the shadowy out-of-sight and -mind faceless and nameless operatives. 11 June 2014
Starving the FOI watchdog to death
The baby has gone out with the bathwater in the Budget ‘reorganisation’ of the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. Transparency is the main casualty: 7 June 2014
Legality may have been lost at sea
If legal, there’s no reason to keep hidden the government’s international law advice which permits Operation Sovereign Borders (aka Operation Son-of-a-Bitch). Why then the secrecy?
Courts struggle with naming justice
Should having an odd name cost someone greater judicial penalties? That’s a question behind the “right to be forgotten” debate just begun in Europe and coming to Australia.
Privacy demands prior notification
Privacy protection should mean notification in advance, before confidential information is sent willy-nilly out of Australia, Dr Terry Dwyer writes, countering Privacy Commissioner Tim Pilgrim’s arguments.
Airport audit shows police mind luggage
The AFP’s special aviation police spend more time on luggage items than any other duty, and AFP formal documents are woefully out of date, a recent ANAO audit shows.
Who’s covering up for whom?
Refugees may have slowed to a trickle, but accountability at Estimates has died completely as secretly-priced Orange Roughie lifeboats wave the usual rules of public communications.