Aussie opposition warns against giving spy agencies more power

CANBERRA, April 30 (Xinhua) -- Australia's opposition Australian Labor Party (ALP) has warned against giving the government the power to spy on Australians at home.

The heads of the Department of Home Affairs and the Department of Defence have reportedly met to discuss new espionage laws that would allow the nation's cyber spy agency to monitor citizens.

Richard Marles, the ALP's defence spokesperson, described the notion as "deeply disturbing."

"The Australian Signals Directorate, it does do some wider things beyond defence, but it is principally a defence asset," Marles told the Guardian Australia on Sunday evening.

"Our nation's security and an accumulation of (Home Affairs Minister) Peter Dutton's power are two very different things, and it concerns me at times that the government confuses them.

"This needs to be seen as an asset of defence, and that's where it remains.

"When you are talking about the surveillance of Australians, which occurs right now through the police, through ASIO (the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation), there's a whole legal apparatus around that providing safeguards, the requirement of warrants.

"There's no indication here about how those safeguards are going to be put in place in relation to ASD."

Under current laws, the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) is not allowed to produce intelligence on Australians, but under the proposed changes it would be able to access emails, bank records and text messages of citizens.

It would represent a shift in power away from the Attorney-General, who must sign a warrant for ASIO to investigate Australian citizens, towards Dutton.

Mark Dreyfus, Labor's shadow Attorney-General, has written to prime minister (PM) Malcolm Turnbull demanding an investigation into how details of national security information were leaked to the media.

"The documents described in the media appear to be extremely sensitive and divulge information about one of Australia's key security agencies," the letter said.

"It is therefore incumbent on you to establish an investigation into how such sensitive information held by members of your government was able to find its way into the public domain.

"There is no greater responsibility of a government than keeping Australians safe, and safeguarding the integrity of those agencies which perform that duty every day." Enditem