Anthony Albanese’s rhetorical attacks on billionaire X-owner Elon Musk belie the fact that national security and online safety laws are outdated and not fit-for-purpose.
The horrifying pace of end-to-end encryption and artificial intelligence advancements means laws must be constantly updated to combat the myriad risks and threats we face.
A traditional manpower-led law enforcement approach, while still critical, is no longer the main game.
If our security agencies don’t have contemporary, world-leading powers and resources to fight terrorists, spies, criminals, pedophiles and extremists, their hands are effectively tied behind their backs.
The Albanese government, which after the 2022 election installed Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen into the National Security Committee of cabinet and broke-up the Home Affairs department, has drifted too far from national security priorities.
Recent events have dragged them back to reality.
Albanese and his senior ministers must take seriously and not sideline the pleas of national security chiefs.
The list of security challenges and threats are growing at pace: people-smuggling boats making landfall, 152 dangerous non-citizens being released from immigration detention, last week’s graphic terror attack in a Sydney church, the horrific stabbing deaths at Bondi Junction Westfield, Chinese and Russian foreign-interference and state-sponsored cyber attacks targeting critical infrastructure.
The massive raids in southwestern Sydney on Wednesday involving more than 400 law enforcement officers, in which seven teenagers and five associates were arrested or are supporting police investigations, will send shivers down the spines of Australians. The juveniles, linked to the 16-year-old who stabbed clerics at a Sydney church last week, were apprehended on the eve of Anzac Day amid concerns of an imminent attacked fuelled by violent extremist ideology.
There are now serious concerns that terrorists, extremists and criminals could remain undetected using the cover of end-to-end encryption, aided and abetted by global tech companies acting with impunity.
Dragging cashed-up billionaires into Australian courts and threatening to slap fines on companies with battalions of lawyers are noble endeavours but likely to have limited effect.
It is time for the Albanese government to get serious about regulating artificial intelligence, following the US TikTok crackdown, updating electronic surveillance laws, joining global pressure campaigns targeting tech giants and legislating powers giving security agencies tools and resources they need to protect families, children and our economic interests.
PM pledges to splash millions on project in marginal seat
Anthony Albanese has promised federal funds to revamp a tourist hotspot he describes as ‘one of the most picturesque parts of Australia’.
Not quite as bad as Gough but it’s close
The Albanese government provides no rationale or narrative for its disconnected actions. Everything is spin. We’ve seldom seen a government this poor in such critical fields at such a dangerous time.