Australian Financial Review http://www.afr.com.au/content/990409/news/news2.html April 9, 1999 ASIO's sweeping new tax powers plan sparks outrage By Geoffrey Barker Australia's domestic intelligence agency will gain unprecedented and virtually unrestricted access to private taxation and financial transaction information under sweeping new legislation now before Federal Parliament. The legislation is part of a major expansion of the powers of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation to hack into computer systems, install listening and tracking devices, and to penetrate private delivery services. The president of the Taxation Institute of Australia, Mr Gordon Cooper, said last night that he was concerned by the extremely broad nature of the proposed legislation, which appeared to open taxation records to a "whole new class of people". Mr Cooper said the institute would consider presenting a submission or giving evidence to the Joint Parliamentary Select Committee on ASIO when it conducts hearings on the legislation next month. The legislation was drafted following a report to the Federal Government by a former ASIO deputy director-general, Mr Gerard Walsh, on how data encryption would affect the ability of law enforcement and national security organisations to track the activities of suspects. In the report, which the Government sought to suppress, Mr Walsh warned that encryption technologies already available publicly were impenetrable by law enforcement and national security agencies. Mr Walsh warned that the loss of access to real-time communications by criminal and terrorist targets would "necessitate a range of activities by law enforcement and national security agencies which carry greater operational, personal and political risks". A proposed amendment to the 1988 Financial Transactions Reports Act gives ASIO, for the first time, access to information collected through AUSTRAC - the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre. At present the information can be released only to taxation, federal police, National Crime Authority and Customs officers. The legislation, which provides for the reporting of substantial financial transactions, was designed to enable the Federal Government to keep track of suspicious financial transfers. A proposed amendment to the 1953 Taxation Administration Act gives ASIO, again for the first time, access to tax information if the Commissioner of Taxation is satisfied that the information is relevant to the performance of ASIO's functions. The act provides for the release of tax information only to law-enforcement or royal commission officers if the information is relevant to establishing whether a serious offence is being committed or if it is required for a proceeds-of-crime order. Mr Cooper, a partner in the Sydney law firm Middletons, Moore and Bevins, said last night there were public-policy benefits in giving law-enforcement agencies access to information to help them combat serious crime. But ASIO's responsibilities were defined very broadly and the provision of tax information to ASIO that was relevant to the performance of ASIO's functions appeared to be giving carte blanche to the organisation. Introducing the little-noticed legislation into Parliament last month, the Federal Attorney-General, Mr Daryl Williams, said the sweeping measures were necessary to enable ASIO to access data. Under amendments to the 1979 ASIO Act, the minister will be able to issue warrants allowing ASIO officers to search premises and to inspect, remove and retain records. They will be able to engage in computer hacking, data copying and even data alteration. The amendments also provide for ASIO to install listening and tracking devices in vehicles and on people. Under the amendments, ASIO is empowered to use any force that is necessary to recover any tracking device. A spokesman for Labor's shadow attorney-general, Mr Robert McClelland, said Labor was, in principle, not concerned by the provisions. It accepted the need for law-enforcement and security organisations to have adequate powers, but was concerned to ensure that the powers were exercised properly. The spokesman said Labor encouraged interested people and organisations to put their views to the joint parliamentary committee. Censored sections of the Walsh report, now available on the internet, warned that criminals could be expected increasingly to encrypt data in ways that would be beyond the reach of law-enforcement agencies. "There are indications ... that the subjects of investigation are making significant use of encryption to store data securely. It is already a frequent experience that this data cannot be decrypted," Mr Walsh wrote. He said the Australian Federal Police, National Crime Authority and ASIO considered real-time access to the communications of suspects essential to their work. Mr Walsh warned that loss of real-time access to communications would require the AFP, the NCA and ASIO, and State and Territory police forces to rely more heavily on human sources of information, on the use of listening devices, on tracking devices, on video surveillance and on physical surveillance. "It takes a long time to recruit, train and position human sources and their flexibility of deployment is limited ... The nature of some target areas is such that only a person of a particular type of background, interests, culture and habits will survive the scrutiny of the group or organisation against which the person has been targeted. "The price of failure can be chillingly brutal," Mr Walsh said. He said there was a need for a broad public discussion of cryptography. "The general availability of data security, whether for storage or communications, will alter the relationship between the citizen and the State. It will mark a rare opportunity ... when advantage moves in the citizen's favour." Mr Walsh said law-enforcement and national security agencies needed to be able to collect tactical intelligence, and his proposals sought to ensure investigative capability was maintained while privacy and civil liberties were preserved. c This material is subject to copyright and any unauthorised use, copying or mirroring is prohibited. ************************************************************************* This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
