The Australian Privacy Foundation set an election challenge last July asking that the parties declare their positions on eight critical privacy issues.
“The government and the alternative government continue to score very badly on privacy”, APF chairman Roger Clarke said.
The privacy foundation gave the Coaltion just 1.5 out of ten for its privacy policies, while Labor also failed with 4.5 out of ten.
“For its total disregard of privacy issues, we need look no further than the recent law introduced by the Government – the new Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financial (AML-CTF) Law,” Mr Clarke said.
“Thousands of small businesses are required to collect much more information from customers, and dob them in for anything suspicious.”
“This isn’t just more red-tape for small business; it destroys the trust within Australian society. Alarm bells should be raised merely from the fact that the Government is trying not to draw attention to this new law before the election.”
The Coalition simply ignored key privacy issues. It did not rule out a further attempt to bring in a de facto ID card via the Access Card proposal, and it did not rule out the use of biometrics and RFID tagging of humans.
The Greens and the Democrats faired much better, rating eight and nine out of ten respectively.
The Democrats strong showing “perhaps a reflection of Senator Natasha Stott- Despoja’s commitment to privacy issues over many years” said Clarke.
The Greens high rating was due to the Party’s opposition to the Access Card proposal and its campaign against the excessive elements in the counter terrorism laws.
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