Australian Government Now Spies on Its Citizens More than the US Government Does

September 30, 2012 Filed under Tyranny Posted by James Smith

Written by Andrew Puhanic

The Australian Government has now been labelled as the most intrusive government in the western world.

It has been revealed that on a per-capita basis, the Australian government spies of its citizens more than any other western government.

In 2010-2011, more than 3,400 Australians had been spied on by more than 17 government law enforcement agencies. This includes state and federal police agencies, the Australian Tax Office (ATO) and Medicare.

The shocking truth is that these government agencies can access telephone and Internet data records without a warrant from a judge.

On a per capita basis, the Australian government is more than 18 times likely to intercept telephone calls than the United States government (Source: Sydney Morning Herald).

Even more disturbing, these government agencies accessed telephone and Internet data records an astonishingly 250,000 times without even recording why and when these intercepts had taken place.

A representative of the Australian Federal Police, Assistant Commissioner Neil Gaughan, claimed on Australian national television that this alarming level of spying is ok because:

There is more accountability in Australia then in the United States of America.
The Australian Federal Police has better relationships with Australian telecommunication companies.
Australian telecommunication companies allow government agencies more access to personal data.
People are only spied on when the matter is considered serious.

What Neil Gaughan failed to mention was that the power to grant warrants was taken away from judges and given to the administrative appeals tribunal, making it easier to obtain warrants.

In reply to Neil Gaughan, Cameron Murphy from the NSW Council of Civil Liberties was quoted as saying: