"Insufficient safeguards in new surveillance law", 25 August 2021.

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 [privacy]...

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.

[The Committee] ... recommended dozens of changes be made to the proposed law [and] 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...