The APF Election Challenge

The Foundation issued an election challenge to the major Parties contesting the federal election on 9 October 2004. Responses were received from four of the invitees, with one party purporting to respond on behalf of both itself and the fifth, its coalition partner. The table below summarises the responses, and provides access to the letters that they sent.

Briefly, the Parties' positions on privacy matters are as follows:

The Democrats gave the most considered response and were prepared to reveal their position on the matters we put to them. They balance privacy against other interests, and their policies are very much in line with the Foundation's platform
The Greens are supportive of the Foundation's privacy platform
Labor acknowledges the need to protect privacy more effectively, and has sought to temper some of the government's privacy-intrusive initiatives, but has made no specific commitments other than to control telemarketing
The Liberal and National Parties continue to be seriously privacy-unfriendly, and have no plans to improve existing privacy safeguards or prevent the erosion of privacy rights

Issue	ALP	Democrats	Greens	Liberals	Nationals
Nature of Response	Specific	Specific	Non-Specific	Non-Specific	None
1. Balance Privacy and Security	Preserve	Challenge the orthodoxy	Yes	–	–
Telecommunications Interception	Clarify	Opposed, keep government accountable	Opposed	–	–
Border Control	–	Seriously concerned, want amendments	–	–	–
Anti Money Laundering Legislation	Comply with international standards, open and public consultation	Carefully scrutinise	Opposed	–	–
Identity Management	–	Seek balanced policy	–	–	–
2. Assess the Privacy Impact of Intrusive Proposals	–	Support	–	–	–
Privacy Impact Assessment	–	Support	–	–	–
Data Matching Guidelines	–	Support	–	–	–
3. Strengthen the Privacy Act	"work closely with the OFPC to ensure it is properly resourced"	Yes	Yes	Review in progress	Review in progress
4. Extending the Spam Act 'Opt-in' principle	No.	Yes, and remove exemptions for political parties and religious organisations	–	–	–
Banning of Unwanted Tele-Marketing	'Opt-out' Register only	Yes	–	–	–
Regulation of the Use of Directory Information	Consider	Yes	–	–	–
Removal of Charges for Silent Lines	Consider	Yes	–	–	–
5. Cooperate with the States and Territories			–	–	–
Health Information	Guidelines only	Generally seek consistency and clarity, plus legislation re genetic information	–	Guidelines only	Guidelines only
Surveillance, incl. tracking and location technologies	Consistent national legislation	Want major amendments to pending legislation	–	–	–
Other		"The Democrats do not accept that rights and liberties are a liability in the fight against terrorism – on the contrary, we believe they are a powerful weapon"	"The Greens are very supportive of the proposals, you outline"	"The Coalition strongly believes that every Australian has a basic right to privacy"	The Liberal Party's response purported to speak for the Nationals too