2017-03-08
The previous US administration’s massive ramp-up of dragnet surveillance, and Australia’s unquestioning subservience, has gifted the most powerful citizen surveillance apparatus in human history to a deeply unstable vindictive bigot, the Australian Greens said today.
“The latest trove released by Wikileaks illustrates an alarming spying arms race between two major American agencies, indiscriminately targeting people right across the world. And all the while, successive Australian governments have remained dutifully silent,” Australian Greens Co-Deputy Leader and Foreign Affairs spokesperson Senator Scott Ludlam said today.
“We can no longer indulge in the complacency that has characterised much of the debate around these issues in Australia. It’s not theoretical anymore. Incredibly invasive mass surveillance systems are now under the control of a thin-skinned misogynistic fear-mongering race-hating extremist.
“Our government must not allow Australian capacity or infrastructure to be used in pursuit of Donald Trump’s extreme agenda. That means all sharing arrangements with foreign intelligence services must be urgently reviewed.
”This is a time for our government to demonstrate that the Australian values they so frequently invoke are not just platitudes, that they’ll take the necessary steps to protect them,” concluded Senator Ludlam.
Media Release Communications Foreign Affairs