A very dynamic issue: International developments in privacy in the last 12 months (original) (raw)

Counter-terrorism and information: The NSI Act, fair trials, and open, accountable government

Continuum, 2011

This paper investigates Australia's National Security Information (Criminal and Civil Proceedings) Act 2004 (Cth) (hereafter, the NSI Act) focusing on its provisions for protecting national security information. The investigation highlights the broad and encompassing definitions of 'national security' and 'information' used in the Act and considers the measures it prescribes for the protection of so-called 'security sensitive' information in Federal civil and criminal proceedings. The paper then examines the implications of the definitions and measures for a suspect's prospects of receiving a fair trial in terrorism cases. Here, the paper highlights the serious restrictions the Act places on a legally-aided person's right to engage a legal representative of their own choosing. These restrictions are then compared with those obtaining in some comparable jurisdictions. As important as the NSI Act's definitions and measures are for the way in which they limit a terrorism suspect's chances of a fair trial, their significance extends well beyond this very serious issue to even deeper concerns. These relate to the secrecy and lack of transparency surrounding the conduct of terrorism cases, the opaqueness of the processes for classifying and protecting information, and the potential for tendentious or improper use of information by the political executive and national security agencies enabled by the dearth of avenues for external, independent scrutiny. At the core of these concerns, then, are issues of the accountability and integrity of the government and of the agencies under its direction. Using the experience of Mohamed Haneef as a case study, the final section of the paper investigates the important role that defence counsel, the media and other independent parties can play to facilitate public scrutiny of the conduct of terrorism investigations and trials and in exposing the improper use sometimes made of protected information by the political executive in attempting to influence the conduct of these cases.

Secret State, Transparent Subject: The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation in the Age of Terror

Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology, 2005

T his article describes the secrecy provisions embodied in the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Legislation Amendment Act 2003 (Cwlth). The article explains how these provisions curb freedom of speech and remove ASIO's activities from the domain of public scrutiny. It argues that by effectively criminalising open discussion of ASIO's activities the provisions insulate much of the domestic 'war on terror' from the public gaze. It also argues that the provisions implicitly sanction lawlessness by ASIO in open breach of the rule of law. By undermining free speech and the rule of law, this legislation increases the risk of torture of persons detained by ASIO. The legislation also exacerbates the punitiveness of such detention. Moreover, the secrecy offences will distort Australian politics by enabling the government to control and manipulate 'security' information. The article concludes that the increase in state secrecy and its impact are part of a continuing shift in the relative distribution of power between state and subject in liberal democracies; a shift that signals a move to more repressive or authoritarian forms of rule.

Intelligence and Security Act 2017: A Preliminary Critique

This article offers a critique of the Intelligence and Security Act 2017. It demonstrates that three underlying contextual factors-formal reviews, domestic scandals and international terrorism-each informed the pertinent law reform process in differing ways. The article also identifies several features of this new Act which deliberately strengthen New Zealand's surveillance capability before focusing on an array of deceptive, highly intrusive and covert surveillance practices that this Act makes lawful. The article finds that this new law transforms the intelligence community into the "eyes and ears" of an apparatus of control focused less on protecting New Zealanders from harms emanating abroad and more on managing the country's population at home. Given New Zealand's limited ability to make sense of its prevailing security environment from a whole-of-society perspective, the Intelligence and Security Act 2017 warrants closer scrutiny from experts in security and law as well as members of the general public.

Alert and alarmed: the National Security Information Act (Cth) 2004

2007

This article highlights the Federal Government's controversial new regime applicable in respect of trials where evidence might relate to national security. It considers whether the provisions of the Act are consistent with fundamental human rights and established constitutional principles.