Australia’s proposed encryption-busting legislation is one of the most significant changes to surveillance laws in a generation, but the government is skimping on the review processes.
Last Thursday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison called for the Assistance and Access Bill to be passed by Parliament within two weeks.
“Our police, our agencies need these powers now,” he said. But I don’t think that’s the reason for the rush.
The Bill is 172 pages of complex legislation. Setting up the systems it enables won’t be quick. A few weeks either way won’t make much difference to the big picture.
No, a more likely reason is to reduce the level of scrutiny the Bill faces before it becomes law.
After all, the Comms Alliance says it’s outrageous, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy says it’s fatally flawed, and the government’s own human rights watchdog committee says it fails to address human rights concerns .
Another probable reason is to get it passed before the end of the year, because there’s likely to be a federal election early in the new year, which means a new parliament, and any legislation not passed by then goes into the bin.
The Bill is currently being reviewed by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security (PJCIS), and the committee was scheduled to hear evidence up to December 4. With Parliament’s last day for 2018 being December 6, that wouldn’t have left time to meet Morrison’s deadline.
See: No backdoors for Australian encryption, just a riddling of ratholes
That was “fixed” on Friday night, when an additional PJCIS hearing was scheduled for this Monday, in addition to those on Tuesday and Friday, and the December 4 hearing was cancelled.
