Thursday, September 13, 2018

Why does Parliamentary Services need spies?

Parliamentary Services is currently advertising for a pair of "security intelligence officers":
Reporting to the Security Enablement Manager, this role will collect information of intelligence value, conduct analysis of the information collected and prepare standardised intelligence product, in order to inform and influence the security and risk posture of Parliamentary Service.
Why the hell does Parliamentary Services need this? Who will they be collecting intelligence on? Because ATM it looks like it will be spying on protesters and petitioners to Parliament, which doesn't fit well with the House's role as a place which is meant to be accessible to all. Throw in the complete lack of oversight - Parliamentary services is not covered by the Official Information Act or the Privacy Act - and it seems to be a recipe for abuse.

But I guess they decided that hiring Thompson & Clark would just look too bad.