To investigate terrorism, law enforcement and intelligence agencies increasingly require assistance from multinational technology companies including Facebook, Google and Apple. These companies can assist with decrypting secret communications or unlocking personal devices, but not, they maintain, without undermining the privacy and security of all their users. While other western countries continue to debate these issues, Australia legislated quickly to enhance decryption capabilities with little industry consultation. This article examines the encryption laws recently enacted by the Australian federal parliament, which allow law enforcement and intelligence agencies to require technical assistance from ‘designated communications providers’. It interrogates the government’s justifications for these laws and examines the wider legal and political context in which they were enacted. The analysis confirms that Australia’s approach to decryption does not represent sound practice and instead reflects a pattern of rights-infringing lawmaking in response to terrorism.

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澳大利亚的加密法：实际需要还是政治策略？

为了调查恐怖主义，执法和情报机构越来越需要跨国技术公司（包括Facebook，Google和Apple）的协助。这些公司可以协助解密秘密通信或解锁个人设备，但是他们维护的不是，而不会损害所有用户的隐私和安全。在其他西方国家继续争论这些问题的同时，澳大利亚迅速立法以提高解密能力，几乎不需要业界咨询。本文研究了澳大利亚联邦议会最近颁布的加密法律，该法律允许执法和情报机构要求“指定的通信提供商”提供技术援助。它询问政府对这些法律的辩解，并研究制定这些法律的更广泛的法律和政治背景。分析证实，澳大利亚的解密方法并不代表合理的作法，而是反映了针对恐怖主义的侵犯人权立法模式。