Lockdowns, data collection and police drones … be afraid
Nothing to hide, nothing to fear? That’s a dangerous attitude, writes Greg Barns
WHAT do we know from the misconduct of Victoria Police in the Lawyer X scandal? That police forces too often have a ‘whatever it takes’ attitude to the law.
Trampling on rights, ignoring the principles of the rule of law, these are the hallmarks of police forces in Australia. And politicians encourage them by caving in to every demand by police for more powers.
In addition to police abuse of powers we have security agencies like ASIO which have gone rogue in the post 9/11 world.
Their proposal for a national biometric database which will enable surveillance 24/7 of everyone among other ills, has been enthusiastically embraced by the Hodgman Government.
When it comes to police, Victoria is not an isolated case in terms of police culture.
Look at the shameful conduct of Western Australia’s police force in the routine assaults and abject failure to ensure the safety of indigenous Australians. Or in NSW where unlawful strip-searching practices were revealed recently.
Here in Tasmania do not think for a moment that you can trust police.
It is the nature of the beast that in a country like
Australia, and Tasmania is no different, a lack of enforceable human rights laws and poor oversight of police, combined with a supine media and political class means police can and will abuse power.
A few months ago Mark Shelton announced that Tasmania Police were getting 16 drones.
Tellingly Mr Shelton said, in his July announcement, that the “drones are governed by strict rules set by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority so as not to cause a hazard to other aircraft, people or property, and they can only be used with official authorisation.”
Note there was no reference to the drones complying with international human rights instruments or privacy legislation.
And at the time Tasmania Police were getting their new toys, they were locking down a town in the north of the state at Cressy.
The roads in and the road out of Cressy were blocked as 15 police sniffer dogs and the usual search apparatus combed through the area.
The justification for this conduct was, as a Commander Smith put it, “It is prudent policing and a bit like fishing. You don’t know what you’ll catch until you put a line in the water.”
In other words, Tasmania Police can take over a community because they might find something!
And there will be more of these police state like operations. Tasmania Police says the Cressy operation is “standard practice” and that the heavy handed tactic would be used again at “random locations and at random times.”
But not only are there drones flying around and lockdowns of towns the Tasmanian Government has been busy uploading your driver’s licence details to a national proposed biometric database. In 2017 there was agreement between
governments across Australia to set up this database but not even the Coalition-led parliamentary committee looking into it will sign off because of the gross lack of privacy protections.
Yet the Hodgman Government, without bothering to get your consent, and with no community consultation is enthusiastically handing over your data anyway.
According to the Premier, in written answers to questions from Tania Rattray MLC, an independent MP, there has been consultation with the community. Mr
Hodgman says the Government issued a media release advising of the uploading and it has changed the driver licence application form to advise you your data will be shared on a national database. That is not community consultation.
And as for letting you opt out if you do not wish to be part of a frightening Big Brother facial recognition database, forget it.
You cannot opt out, says the Premier, because doing so would defeat the purpose of a system to combat identity theft. But do not worry because of course a
“comprehensive set of measures are in place to protect the privacy of individuals”.
There will be some readers of this column who take the view that it is worth sacrificing some freedoms in order to keep us safe, or that if you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to worry about.
Both attitudes are dangerous. They allow police and security agencies and their political masters to legislate for the power to surveil, control and track all of us all of the time. The loser is democracy as our rights to privacy and to freedom of movement are undermined. The rule of law becomes a nuisance, an impediment in the way of control.
If you want to live in a society where locking down communities, police surveillance in the form of drones, and facial recognition allowing for surveillance of your movements is the order of the day, then that is your right. But do not proclaim to believe in democracy in the same breath.