IQ2 Debate: Only the Wicked Need Fear Government Spying

Overview

On March 26, the Federal Government passed its controversial data retention laws, meaning phone and internet service providers must store the metadata surrounding your phone calls and internet adventures for two years. And not only must they store this information, 85 various agencies associated with security and policing can get access to it: no warrant necessary.

While Attorney General George Brandis lauded the passing of the bill, describing metadata as “the basic building block in nearly every counterterrorism, counterespionage and organised crime investigation,” Greens Senator Scott Ludlam remained strongly against its “entrenching” of “a form of passive surveillance over 23 million Australians.”

Such a hot topic is the ideal opener for the 2015 IQ2 debate program, run by the Ethics Centre (formerly St James Ethics Centre). On March 31, four speakers will gather at City Recital Hall to argue over the statement, 'Only the wicked need fear government spying'. Opposing the motion will be Suelette Dreyfus, author of cult classic Underground, and David Marr, who writes for Guardian Australia, the Saturday Paper and Quarterly. In the statement's defence will speak Rufus Black, Master of Ormond College at the University of Melbourne and government advisor, as well as Michael Wesley, Professor of International Affairs and Director of the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs at the Australian National University.