Displaying items by tag: Parliament

The Australian Government has washed its hands of any decision the ABC might make about compulsory logins for its iview service, saying the taxpayer-funded broadcaster has content and operational independence to do what it likes.

Three technology industry bodies have urged the Federal Government to significantly revise the Security Legislation Amendment (Critical Infrastructure) Bill 2020 before it is voted on, as it would otherwise "create an unworkable set of obligations and set a troubling global precedent".

The Australian Cyber Security Centre says it is aware of disruptions being experienced on some Department of Parliamentary Services-issued smartphones and tablets over this weekend.

With the news media code now signed into law, it is time for all three entities involved in the drama that played out over the last few weeks — Google, Facebook and the Federal Government — to claim victory.

Search giant Google has rejected the Australian news media code which was introduced into Parliament on 9 December, saying it "remains unworkable, but there is a way forward".

The Federal Government has presented a bill in Parliament that would give the AFP and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission three new warrants in order that they can handle serious criminal acts online.

With Parliament having just another eight days to sit this year, the bosses of Australia's media organisations have sought to pressure politicians into getting the promised news media code passed before they rise for the year on 10 December.

The Australian Information and Industry Association has cautioned the Federal Government against rushing through its draft bill on protecting critical infrastructure, recommending that there be more consultation in order to get details of the law right.

The calendar for progressing the mandatory media code into legislation has been delayed a bit, ACCC chairman Rod Sims admits, adding that he still expected to see the law presented to Parliament in time for it to be in place before the end of the year.

The ability of Australia’s enforcement agencies to operate effectively in a digital environment where bad actors have increasingly employed encrypted communications to attempt to conceal their activities from authorities, has been identified by lobby group Communications Alliance as one of the key objectives to be considered in Federal Parliament’s review of amendments to the Telecommunications and Other Legislation Amendment (Assistance and Access) Act.

Telecommunications consumer group ACCAN says it continues to have concerns about the technical shortfalls of the COVIDSafe app, as well as issues relating to public education about the app.

The bipartisan Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security has rejected both an identity-matching bill and a passports amendment bill in their current form.

When news of the breach of the Federal Parliament network broke on Friday, the Australian Signals Directorate was quick to point out that attribution, if it was made, would take time.

The Australian Labor Party says it expects the matter of amendments to the encryption law passed last year will be taken up during the first sitting of Parliament this year, as agreed to by the government.

Breaking a long silence on the encryption bill, the Australian Greens have called on the government to reveal the details of the deal it sturck with Labor to agree on passing the bill.

A UK court’s refusal to overturn a request for the blocking of sites in the country dealing in counterfeit luxury products has prompted Internet Australia to repeat its call for the repeal of Australia’s Copyright Amendment (Online Infringement) Bill 2015 — the so-called site-blocking law 2015 — passed by federal parliament in the middle of last year.

Electronic Frontiers Australia has called for warrants to be made mandatory in every case where the release of metadata, stored under the recently introduced laws, is sought.

With prices higher in Australia than the US, many think we’re already paying an Australia tax, but Choice says website blocking could make things much worse.

First Russian President Vladimir Putin said the Internet is a CIA front, and today it has been revealed that Chinese intelligence agencies had access to Australian politicians’ emails for up to a year after they hacked the parliamentary computer network in 2011.

The Coalition has broken a key election promise, announcing the NBN Co will no longer be able to complete the first stage of the network by 2016.