Are Australian Surveillance Agencies Also on NSA Payroll?

The Greens have called on the Federal Government to urgently disclose whether has received payments from the US Government for intelligence-gathering in line with those paid covertly to British Intelligence agencies.

"The whistleblower Edward Snowden continues to serve the public interest with revelations that the US Government is quietly paying UK authorites to extend the reach of its vast and indiscriminate surveillance programmes", said Australian Greens communications spokesperson Senator Scott Ludlam.

"The obvious question is whether or not this arrangement extends to Australia. Sooner or later the Australian Government is going to have to come clean; either by voluntary transparency or further whistleblower revelations. How deeply are we implicated in this massive surveillance dragnet? And is the Australian Government's compliance being bought in the same way as the British Government's?"

"Australians are owed answers, not continued silence broken by occasional bursts of obfuscation," Senator Ludlam said.

PN Member Senator Scott Ludlam is spokesperson for Communications, Housing, Heritage, Nuclear Issues, Infrastructure and Sustainable Cities.

Originally published on Scott Ludlam's website.

Photo by utnapistim.