BIG BROTHER – The Customs version -  here and now

 

Customs is a leader in checking on your email and phone usage.

 

The COA has long held the view that if you commit a crime (felonious act or a serious misdemeanour) then you deserve to be caught and appropriately punished. That is still our position. What has changed is the definition of a Criminal act. It now includes talking about how we are all governed.   

 

The COA supports all measures that help detect persons engaged in drugs, terrorism, fraud, theft, corruption, assaults, vandalism, illegal entry or any other serious matter which are clearly criminal acts against the interests of the public. These are real crimes. As such, crimes against the community or individuals should be pursued in the interests of the public –

 

However  ‘crimes’ are now being redefined by bureaucrats and politicians and extended to protect their interest rather than the interest of the public.

 

It is now a crime to disclose to the public what a Government agency is doing or even what it is not doing. Information of this sort is in the public interest. Yet those with the means to exercise power – the bureaucrats and the politicians want to stop the public from being told about decisions and policies which directly affect their day to day lives. The real motivation of the bureaucrats is to stop the public knowing the failures of public administration. Under the Woodward administration it is clear why there was such passion to stop the public (and possibly Ministers) from knowing the mess that was being created.

 

Customs regularly runs ‘random’ audits of selected staff (how that constitutes the term ‘random’ is beyond comprehension). They ‘review’ stored information which might be as old as 3 years and then issue ‘please explains’ to staff.

 

Chasing staff who are suspected of corruption, theft, drug running, or who run ‘bookie shops’ from work is a legitimate use of checks on email and phone usage. Even to carry out checks to identify persons accessing serious porn on workplace computers is legitimate – but when the checks are used to target selected individuals to see if they are sending funny or even mildly risqué jokes then it is clearly an abuse and wrongful use of administrative power. It is even more of an abuse of administrative powers to use audit facilities to check up on who released information of genuine public interest where no harm would ensue to the public if the information was released.

 

Under the previous Woodward administration, the petty, cringing, underhand, snide strike at the workers became the standard cultural norm. Anything to divide and fragment the workforce seemed to be standard operating procedures and some of the upper and middle-managers took to the culture like ducks to water. Fortunately some did not. However the cringing lot made it their business to select targets for special attention and so ‘random’ audits of emails and phones were the order of the day.

 

So much energy of the Internal Affairs Unit was diverted to trying to catch minor public service misdemeanours that real threats to Customs integrity were unnecessarily sidelined. Not the fault of the IAU, it seems almost certainly to have been a cultural drive from the top to scare and intimidate staff generally. The aim seemed to be to instil fear against making comments or contacts where opinions not favourable to management may be expressed.

 

However it seems to be a new ball game under the new CEO, Mr Carmody. As stated elsewhere in this journal, I have only had good reports on the new culture he is bringing to the workplace. Hopefully the targeted audits will stop and only genuine random audits will be conducted. It is clearly time to purge the cultural quagmire legacy of the Woodward administration and start off with a clean sheet.

 

It would also be very good if he could round up all the aforementioned ‘ducks’ and deal with them ‘Borgia’ style – just before he purges their carcasses out to the ‘never to be found again swamp’.

 

Having criticised politicians and the Government specifically, it is therefore very surprising that the Government has introduced the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 (C'th).

 

It seems these changes will make it much harder for bureaucrats to track down staff who have opinions and express them about problems within public administration.

 

 

 

 

 

Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 (C'th).

 

Legislative amendments became effective on 13 June 2006 which provide significantly improved privacy protection for email, SMS and voice mail messages stored on carriers' equipment, i.e. "stored communications".
http://www.efa.org.au/Issues/Privacy/tia.html

 

Part 13 - Protection of Communications of the Telecommunications Act 1997 (C'th)
http://www.efa.org.au/Issues/Privacy/ta.html

 

 

Particular Extract. 

Prohibition on Interception of Telecommunications

Section 7 of the TIA Act states:

(1) A person shall not:

(a) intercept;

(b) authorize, suffer or permit another person to intercept; or

(c) do any act or thing that will enable him or her or another person to intercept;
a communication passing over a telecommunications system.

A person who contravenes subsection 7(1) is guilty of an offence punishable on conviction by imprisonment for a period not exceeding 2 years (s105). Note, however, that limited exceptions to the s7(1) prohibition are specified in other subsections of s7. These include interception under an interception warrant.

The following web site information is reprinted with the kind permission of Electronic Frontiers Australia.

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Last Updated: 19 Oct 2006

"There was, of course, no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment... it was even conceivable that [the Thought Police] watched everybody all the time... They could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to live... in the assumption that... every movement was scrutinized."

-  George Orwell 1947, in 1984

 

This page provides information about the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 which was amended effective from 13 June 2006 to provide significantly improved privacy protection for email, SMS and voice mail messages stored on carriers' equipment.

Contents

·                      Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 (C'th)

o                                  Overview

o                                  Interception

§                                                Definitions

§                                                Prohibition on Interception of Telecommunications

§                                                Interception Warrants

·                                                            National Security

·                                                            Law Enforcement

§                                                Exceptions to the Prohibition on Interception

o                                  Stored Communications

§                                                Definition of Stored Communications

§                                                Access to Stored Communications

§                                                Prohibition on Access to Stored Communications

§                                                Stored Communications Warrants

§                                                Exceptions to the Prohibition on Access to Stored Communications

·                                                            Exceptions applicable to enforcement agencies

·                                                            Exceptions applicable to ASIO

·                                                            Exceptions applicable to Carriers and Carriers' employees

·                      Other Resources

Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 (C'th)

Overview

The primary object of the Commonwealth Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 ("TIA Act") is to protect the privacy of individuals who use the Australian telecommunications system. The second purpose of the TIA Act is to specify the circumstances in which it is lawful for interception of, or access to, communications to take place.

The TIA Act prohibits the interception of communications passing over a telecommunications system and prohibits access to stored communications (i.e. email, SMS and voice mail messages stored on a carrier's equipment) except where authorised in specified circumstances. The primary exception is to enable law enforcement agencies to lawfully intercept or access telecommunications in specified circumstances pursuant to an interception warrant or a stored communications warrant issued under the TIA Act. A small number of other exceptions are specified for particular purposes including tracing the location of callers in emergencies, and the operation and maintenance of a telecommunications system.

Prior to 13 June 2006 the Act was named the Telecommunications (Interception) Act 1979 and during the period 15 December 2004 to 12 June 2006, it did not apply to "stored communications", i.e. email, SMS and voice mail messages stored on carriers' equipment. However, the legislation has applied to stored communications since 13 June 2006.

The name of the Act was changed to the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 by the Telecommunications (Interception) Amendment Act 2006 ("the 2006 Act") which established a regime to govern access to stored communications (e.g. email, SMS and voice mail messages) held by a telecommunications carrier. These amendments included the establishment of a new "stored communications warrant". The 2006 Act also made a number of changes to the pre-existing interception provisions of the Act.

 

 

As stated in the Explanatory Memorandum to the 2006 Act:

In relation to both telecommunications interception and access to stored communications, the Act makes clear that the general position is that these activities are prohibited, except in certain clearly defined situations. This reflects the primary focus of the Act which is to protect the privacy of communications.

The terms "communication" and "telecommunications system" are defined in the TIA Act as follows:

communication includes conversation and a message, and any part of a conversation or message, whether:
(a) in the form of:
     (i) speech, music or other sounds;
     (ii) data;
     (iii) text;
     (iv) visual images, whether or not animated; or
     (v) signals; or
(b) in any other form or in any combination of forms.

telecommunications system means:
(a) a telecommunications network that is within Australia; or
(b) a telecommunications network that is partly within Australia, but only to the extent that the network is within Australia;
and includes equipment, a line or other facility that is connected to such a network and is within Australia.

The interception related provisions of the TIA Act apply to communications that are "passing over a telecommunications system", that is, "live" or "real-time" communications such as telephone call conversations and communications in transit over the Internet including while passing through ISPs' equipment such as routers, etc.

The stored communications provisions of the TIA Act apply to communications such as email, SMS and voice mail messages that either have not commenced, or have completed, passing over a telecommunications system and that are stored on a telecommunications carrier's equipment (including on an Internet Service Provider's equipment).

The TIA Act also contains a number of safeguards, controls and accountability mechanisms involving record keeping, reporting, restrictions on use of intercepted or accessed information, etc.

The remainder of this page provides a more detailed outline of the provisions of the TIA Act in relation to the prohibitions on interception/access and the circumstances in which enforcement agencies may be authorised to intercept/access. It should be noted that the TIA Act contains 256 pages as at 13 June 2006 and the purpose of this page is to provide an outline of some, not all, sections.