“It’s incredibly worrying to see AFP officers carry out a raid on the home of a political journalist working to reveal an important public interest issue – a potential massive expansion of domestic capacity in Australian spy agencies.
We fear that the powers given to the AFP to seize and search Annika Smethurst’s digital footprint represent a considerable risk to bold Australians who choose to expose wrongdoing in the public services.
This is a gross abuse of national security powers – using them to reinforce a culture of secrecy and lack of accountability in our law enforcement apparatus.”
Quotes attributable to Tim Singleton Norton, Chair – Digital Right’s Watch.