Second review of Assistance and Access Act, deadline 22 February (Friday!) for submissions
Hi fellow FSM-ites, I recently found out by accident, listening to Geraldine Doogue (spelling?) on ABC Radio National, that the deadline for public submissions to the review of the Assistance and Access Act is this coming Friday, 22nd February, only a few days away. I knew that the review was coming, but I wasn't expecting it so soon, and I must say it caught me by surprise. So if we want to do a joint submission as FSM, then we really have to get moving on it pretty quickly. I was talking to Tatiana over the weekend, and she suggested we could work on this at our FSM meeting on Thursday. Even so, we'd need to do a fair bit of preparation beforehand. The current government webpage for making submissions (and some information) is: https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Intelligence_... There you can also look at submissions that have already been made. That would be useful to see what people are saying. Not to be confused with this is the old webpage for the previous review from last year: https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Intelligence_... But similarly that provides access to the public submissions that were made to that earlier review, which also might be worth reading if you have the time. (I made a submission to that review, and got an emailed acknowledgement for it. But strangely I can't find it on the list. I don't know what happened there, and right now I don't have the time to track that down.) One complication is that I'm away in NSW at the moment. My Dad, who's 90, had a fall week before last. Luckily no broken bones, but concussion and bruising. He's been discharged from hospital to return home. But it's been pretty disruptive, and I need to stay with him for a bit while he recuperates. That puts limits on how much I can contribute to our submission this time. I'll try to do as much as I can, but I'll have to leave it to the rest of you to move this along in time. I guess that's about all for now. — Smiles, Les.
Thank you so much Les. I have been missing in action, so apologies.
I have started an etherpad for our submission, which people can add to. I propose that we finalise it tomorrow at the meeting and send it off to meet the submission deadline.
Please add stuff, rather than editing or removing other people's stuff so that we can edit it all together tomorrow. I had a chat to Les and he was very helpful in pointing out that it does not have to be a very detailed or even well-thought out (after all, the government has not fully thought it through,) we just have to register our opposition.
The etherpad is at https://etherpad.net/p/Acces_Assistance_ands_Bill
Regards,
Tatiana
On Tuesday, 19 February 2019, 11:16:56 pm AEDT, Les Kitchen
On Wed, Feb 20, 2019, at 11:00, Tatiana Lenz wrote: ...
The etherpad is at https://etherpad.net/p/Acces_Assistance_ands_Bill
Thanks, Tatiana, for setting that up. Let's do what we can. — Smiles, Les.
Just remember you do not have to rush this - they will continue to take submissions after the closing date if the submission is relevant. Paul
Hi folks, On Wed, Feb 20, 2019, at 17:41, Les Kitchen wrote:
On Wed, Feb 20, 2019, at 11:00, Tatiana Lenz wrote: ...
The etherpad is at https://etherpad.net/p/Acces_Assistance_ands_Bill
Thanks, Tatiana, for setting that up. Let's do what we can.
I'm pretty occupied with family business here. I just took a quick look at the submission on the etherpad and it looks really good. Congratulations, gang! I'm assuming that it's already been submitted, or will be submitted soon. There is a some process involved in submission in that you have to set up an account first. I think that's changed since last time I did it. I'm still hoping to put in an individual submission, really covering much the same ground in different words, hoping my position as "academic expert" might carry some weight. But realistically, the chances that I'll manage that today are pretty small, so it's a big relief that we've got our FSM submission in there. Yay, FSM! — Smiles, Les. P.S. I think this will end up being an ongoing campaign.
Hi all, On 22/2/19 9:41 am, Les Kitchen wrote:
... I'm still hoping to put in an individual submission, really covering much the same ground in different words, hoping my position as "academic expert" might carry some weight.
Ha. I like to think that the only time I put "Dr" in front of my name is when I'm writing letters to politicians or trying to get upgraded to business class on a flight ;) I've submitted an individual submission which has a bit of a free-software focus, if you're interested in taking anything from there and incorporating it into the FSM submission. It is based on a letter I sent to the original committee, and also I wrote a letter similar to this to all Victorian senators and my local member who voted for the legislation. https://www.aph.gov.au/DocumentStore.ashx?id=80422206-8ad8-4a80-b139-67c096c256ae&subId=666320 However, I think that you have already covered most of my points in your letter, which is well written! Just make sure that if you email this in, that you also follow up in order to make it public. For the original comittee, the default was for emailed correspondence to not be made public, and then I received an automated response saying "Thanks for your submission! blah blah (If you want it to be public respond to this email) blah blah" which I overlooked, and as such my original submission was not made public :( Cheers, pete.
participants (4)
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Les Kitchen -
Paul Templeton -
Peter Serwylo -
Tatiana Lenz