Editor: It would be easy enough to rail against the deputy leader of the Labor Party, Tanya Plibersek, for supporting moves to require telecommunications companies to intercept, collect & store metadata on behalf of Australia’s so-called ‘intelligence agencies’ (‘Tanya Plibersek: we would give spies more tools to fight domestic terror’, The Guardian, March 31, 2014). But what would it achieve to highlight the innumerable intelligence failures & abuses perpetrated by our unaccountable spymasters in the name of ‘keeping us safe’ when, as Julian Assange, Edward Snowden & George Brandis have clearly shown, they are going to do whatever they want anyhow?
So, rather than wasting my breath fulminating against the ignorance & stupidity of our politicians, keen to sell our essential freedoms down the drain at every opportunity, I propose to endorse the proposals, provided there are absolutely no exceptions made – in particular for politicians & bureaucrats.
– John Richardson, CLA member, Wallagoot NSW