Australia will use a meeting this week to try and get the co-operation of its partners in the Five Eyes alliance to "thwart" the use of encryption by terrorists.

The Australian Greens have slammed Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's "knee-jerk reaction" of lending support to a push by his British counterpart, Theresa May, for a limit on access to encrypted communication services, in the wake of the terrorist attack in London on Saturday.

The Australian Government has finally put in place laws to govern data breaches, with legislation passing the Senate on Monday.

The Australian Greens have called on the federal government to confirm whether there is a plan to introduce an Internet filter that blocks overseas online vendors who do not charge GST from 1 July next year.

The Australian Labor Party has caved in and voted with the Coalition government to allow the Australian Bureau of Statistics to fine people over submitting late or incorrect census forms.

The Australian Greens have drafted a motion to secure a commitment from the government that the Australia Bureau of Statistics will not fine anyone who does not complete the census.

Australian Greens Senator Scott Ludlam is not resiling from his census day announcement that the Greens would introduce amendments when parliament returned "to ensure that people acting to protect their privacy in response to the census will not be fined, and to prevent the ABS from entrenching individual 'linkage keys' that track every citizen for their lifetime".

Seven Australian senators have said they will not provide their names when they fill up their census forms tonight.

Internet Australia (IA) has called for an urgent re-think on NBN urging the Australian Government Senate inquiry last Friday to ‘just do it’ and deploy fibre.

The Senate has passed the Copyright Amendment (Online Infringement) Bill 2015, which allows the blocking of web sites that may facilitate piracy.

Australian now has one of the most draconian mass surveillance regimes in the Western world. Yesterday the Senate passed the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Amendment (Data Retention) Bill 2014.

The most trenchant Parliamentary critic of the data retention laws has been Greens Senator Scott Ludlam. Here is his statement after the legislation was passed.

At the Tech Leaders 2015 conference in the Blue Mountains, Greens Senator Scott Ludlam gave his views on Australia’s Mandatory Data Retention scheme proposals.

Greens Senator Scott Ludlum has disputed claims by the AFP that the mandatory retention of metadata by ISPs will not be used to infringe on individual privacy or to go after bittorent downloaders. He believes: "If the state's got your phone, it's got your soul."

The data retention debate is still with us, but it seems unlikely that the bill’s many opponents will be able to stop it.

A group led by three senators will gather at Parliament House today to protest against the Government’s plans to force telcos and ISPs to store customer data.

Debate is raging across Australia over the Abbott government's surveillance agenda and a range of influential speakers are set to put their views forward at a Melbourne event later this month.

Greens Senator Scott Ludlam is highly critical of the Government’s attempts to combat online piracy. His is a voice of reason in a sea of self-interest.

Australia's cyber citizens have been relatively quiet amid the NSA snooping scandals that have engulfed pretty much every country across the globe - and it might just be time for them to do something.

ICT news and opinion website Delimiter is closing down. Founder, editor, analyst, ad salesman and thorn in the side of many in the industry, Renai LeMay, is leaving to start a proper job as technology adviser to Greens Senator Scott Ludlam.