No subject

Does the Australian government have a current public policy on domestic use 
of crypto? 

There has been silence from the federal government for some time on a broader 
cryptography policy. However, there have been some specific 
cryptography-related initiatives mainly related to the establishment of a 
legal regime for electronic commerce. Several expert working groups have been 
established - one by the Minister for Communication, the Arts and the 
Information Economy and another by the Attorney-General. The latter is 
dealing with the legal regime for online transactions and information 
exchange. For example it is considering how digital signatures can be given 
legal status. Both working groups were due to report to their ministers in 
the first half of 1998, but only the legal group has so far done so. 

In 1996, the Federal Government did make substantial steps towards developing 
a policy on the use of cryptography in Australia. A report was commissioned 
from Mr Gerard Walsh, a former deputy head of the Australian Security 
Intelligence Organisation (ASIO). On one side of the debate is the argument 
that free access to cryptography by the general public enables them to fulfil 
their right to protect the privacy of their communications, including 
commercially valuable data. On the other side, the government argues that it 
needs to control the use of cryptography to enable eavesdropping on phone 
calls, email etc as part of its law enforcement activities. 

The planned release of the Walsh Report for public comment was withheld by 
the Attorney-General's department. EFA eventually obtained a copy of the 
report under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act and has published it on the 
EFA Web site. However, some sections had been deleted on grounds of national 
security under FOI Act. 

The Walsh Report comes out in favour of free access to cryptography by the 
public, at least for the moment. The conclusions in the report are especially 
interesting in view of the Mr. Walsh's background with ASIO. Some are arguing 
that the report was withheld because it did not reach the "right" conclusions 
that use of cryptography should be restricted. The status of current thinking 
in the government is unknown. 

There's more on the efa's site.

skribe
-- 
Public key information available at:
http://www.amber.com.au/~skribe/publickey.html
Key fingerprint = A855 9CA3 953B 5195 C518  12F2 0E05 DCCD 5A88 E8A4 

I lay my head on the railroad tracks,
Waitin' for the double E.
The railroad don't run no more.
Poor poor pitiful me.			[chorus]
	Poor poor pitiful me, poor poor pitiful me.
	These young girls won't let me be,
	Lord have mercy on me!
	Woe is me!

Well, I met a girl, West Hollywood,
Well, I ain't naming names.
But she really worked me over good,
She was just like Jesse James.
She really worked me over good,
She was a credit to her gender.
She put me through some changes, boy,
Sort of like a Waring blender.		[chorus]

I met a girl at the Rainbow Bar,
She asked me if I'd beat her.
She took me back to the Hyatt House,
I don't want to talk about it.		[chorus]
		-- Warren Zevon, "Poor Poor Pitiful Me"