The Government's claim that if innocent people are not informed about the monitoring of their communications, they cannot be harmed by that monitoring, is laughable, according to the Australian Democrats.
During debate in the committee stage of the Telecommunications (Interception) Amendment Bill today, Senator Ellison claimed that "If a person never knows that they have been discriminated against and this is across the board they cannot bring the action".
"This is just one example of the profound impact on the privacy of Australians that will result from the passing of this bill," Democrats' Attorney-Generals and Privacy Spokesperson Senator Natasha Stott Despoja said.
"Under this legislation, innocent third parties will be able to have their phone calls intercepted and may never know about it.
"Conversations between a person and their lawyer, their doctor, their religious leader or their Member of Parliament can now be intercepted with no consideration for professional privilege.
"Commonwealth and State bodies like the ATO, ASIC and Customs will now be able to access all emails, voicemail messages and SMS messages that a person has kept, and they may never know that their messages have been read or listened to. These are unprecedented powers.
"We are losing our civil liberties in a manner which will only perpetuate the problems we are trying to prevent," Senator Stott Despoja said.
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