Delicious/delimiterau
- Dell chief defends transfer pricing
- Qantas tech exec shifts to Jetstar
- Zurich Australia leads regional thin client push
- Early investors drop Facebook
- Victoria kills HealthSMART IT project
- Woz not great - mUmBRELLA
- Santos' thin client starts big-data plans
- Nokia Lumia 800 revs up at Bridgestone
- Telstra privacy breach was 'one little oops'
- 'Battleground of the future' the focus of new agreement with US
News - Written by Renai LeMay on Monday, June 21, 2010 15:04 - 5 Comments
Ludlam raises OzLog issue in Senate
Greens Communications Spokesperson Scott Ludlam has questioned the Federal Government in the Senate over a controversial new proposal that could see Australians’ web browsing, email and telephone records tracked by internet services providers.
The senator asked Senator Penny Wong — representing Attorney-General Robert McCLelland — in the Senate this afternoon whether the Government was considering a proposal which would see such records kept. The proposal — revealed several weeks ago by ZDNet.com.au, which has since published a major update on the situation — has been dubbed “OzLog” online.
In response, Wong appeared to read out a pre-prepared response which bore a close resemblance to statements the Government has previously issued on the matter.
“I understand the Attorney-General’s Department has been consulting with industry with relation to continuing availability of telecommunications data with reference to law enforcement purposes,” Wong said, noting the information would be valuable in identifying criminal activities and terrorist networks.
She added that the proposal would not see the content of communications tracked — only information which would allow people to be identified online.
Wong said that technology had changed the way telecommunications companies operated, and that the Government was keen to maintain access to the data.
Ludlam also asked Wong whether the Government had costed the proposal, or whether it expected the industry to fund it, and what had industry told the Government in the consultations. In addition, he asked whether the Government was planning to consult with the public about the proposal, or whether it would “repeat the experience of the mandatory internet filter”.
Wong said the proposal would need to meet a good balance between a number of different areas of concern — such as privacy, law enforcement needs, commercial imperatives and so on. She also noted the Attorney-General’s Department had had ongoing consultations with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner over the matter, and any proposal would be considered with relevance to privacy legislation.
However Wong appeared to imply that not all of Ludlam’s questions could be answered just yet. “Your question really goes to what the final detail of any proposal would indicate,” she said.
Ludlam didn’t appear to believe the exchange delivered any insight. “One of those moments when you end up knowing less than before you asked the question,” he said on Twitter afterwards.
Image credit: David Howe, Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported licence
Related posts:
- OzLog to feature in Senate enquiry
- OzLog unveiled: Senate lays data retention bare
- Poor OzLog consultation led to FUD, finds Senate
- ISP data retention still an issue, Ludlam warns
- Greens slam “extraordinary” OzLog secrecy
| Tweet | |
![]() |
5 Comments
Leave a Comment
Enterprise IT, Featured, News - May 23, 2012 12:54 - 0 Comments
SAP’s SuccessFactors deploys Aussie datacentre
More In Enterprise IT
- Govt pushes ahead with cloud-sharing approach
- The ABC didn’t sack Bitcoin miner
- Victoria dumps HealthSMART e-health project
- HP completes giant new NSW datacentre
- Microsoft beats Salesforce to utility CRM deal
Analysis, Telecommunications - May 23, 2012 11:08 - 5 Comments
The NBN, service providers and you … what could go wrong?
More In Telecommunications
- NBN here to stay under Coalition, says analyst
- iiNet ramps up Internode digestion
- China concerned by Huawei NBN ban, says Bob Carr
- Parliament knocks back surveillance terms
- Evidence: Rural Australia is demanding the NBN
Gadgets, News - May 21, 2012 12:32 - 5 Comments
Galaxy S III listed for Telstra, Optus and Vodafone
More In Gadgets
- Will Telstra skip Nokia’s Lumia 900?
- New BlackBerry OS 7.1 hits Australia
- ASUS Transformer Pad tablet hits Australia
- HTC One XL on sale: Compatible with Telstra 4G
- Optus a “disgusting” company, says AFL chief
Reviews - May 7, 2012 18:16 - 2 Comments
Telstra Mobile Wi-Fi 4G: Review
More In Reviews
- Samsung Galaxy S III: Preview
- HTC Titan II 4G: Preview
- Nokia Lumia 710: Review
- Sony Xperia S: Review
- Samsung Omnia W: Review









sponsored post ING Direct recently implemented a private cloud solution to virtualise its entire banking platform, allowing it to provision a new copy of itself -- a so-called 'bank in a box' -- within minutes. 
Roll on election day.
I second that…
We need more pollies like Scott Ludlam. It’s a pity he’s a Green.
The amusing thing about this effort from Ludlam today was the stock standard response from the Government. Wong read the answer straight from her notes — she had clearly been expecting the question and was prepared to give exactly the answer that the Government had previously given. This represents a lack of openness on the part of the Government — its ministers should be able to discuss issues rationally and openly rather than simply reading prepared answers without any insight.
The issue is the Senator Wong is not the minister responsable.
Generally, front bench senators get briefing notes for portfolios being held by lower house ministers (and the same for the MHR ministers).
Generally these “Ministers representing” do not get full briefings due to logistics and time constraints, so unless the Minister is involved or has intererst in the topic, they would generally use canned answers to questions without notice.
One way Senator Lundam could get more details is to ask the question “on notice” to allow the department to prepare a more detailed answer. However question time (or more formally, questions without notice) is an important opotunity to non govenment members as it is the only part of a parlementary session broadcast on free to air TV.