Australia is a former British colony. Like the American colonies, it inherited the British common law and the liberties that came with it.
And like everywhere else in the former British empire, Australia became prosperous and wealthy compared to the rest of the world.
Just as in America and Britain, warrants signed by judges were required for government agents to search people’s private records.
But just as in the U.S., the Australian government began carving back on common liberties in recent years–under the claim that the threat of “terrorism” was everywhere.
Some years ago, Australian law switched so that a warrants need only be signed by “the Attorney-General [not a judge] to access Australians’ emails, bank records and text messages.”
And now there is a secret plan among some in the Australian government to further erode the privacy of the citizenry. Government “[m]inisters are reportedly planning to amend the Intelligence Services Act of 2001 to allow” Aussie Home Affairs officials to access citizen records without warrant and without even notifying the attorney general.
“The plan was revealed by a leaked letter from Home Affairs Secretary Mike Pezzullo to Defence Secretary Greg Moriarty.”
The secret plan was leaked to the Telegraph.
