The Greens are proud supporters of community radio and TV, upon which millions of Australian rely: each month, 10 million Australians enjoy community radio and 3.7 million watch community TV.

Our Support Community Media plan will invest an additional $27m in our community broadcasters so they can provide more skills, training, equipment and Australian content.

The Australian Greens support the building of a Fibre to the Home National Broadband Network because we know the NBN will create enormous opportunities for Australia's future. The NBN needs to be public, transparent, fast and unfiltered.

Greens have worked to improve the NBN at every step of planning and legislation that preceded fibre roll out.

The claim by Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus that Edward Snowden and Bradley Manning are not whistleblowers shows Labor’s desperation to justify its attacks on privacy, the Greens said today.

Greens communications spokesperson Senator Scott Ludlam said the claim by Mr Dreyfus “beggars belief”.

The Greens welcome the start today of CHOICE magazine's campaign for Fair Use in Australian copyright law.

The Greens communications spokesperson, Senator for Western Australia Scott Ludlam, currently has legislation before a Senate Committee on comprehensive reforms of Australian copyright law - including a fair use provision - and welcomed the support from one of Australia's leading consumer watchdogs.

"CHOICE's message is simple but on target - ‘Australian copyright law is broken and Fair Use will fix it'. They are asking people to 'pledge' their support for Fair Use.

Question No. 26

Senator Ludlam asked the following question at the hearing on 29 May 2013:

Senator LUDLAM: ... I understand there were consultations occurring in an earlier iteration of the data retention policy around 2009. ...

Senator LUDLAM: That is fascinating. How many meetings were there? Mr Wilkins: I do not know.

Senator LUDLAM: Is that because these things did not have any formal standing as such?

Mr Wilkins: There were two, apparently.

The Greens have called on the Federal Government to urgently disclose whether has received payments from the US Government for intelligence-gathering in line with those paid covertly to British Intelligence agencies.

"The whistleblower Edward Snowden continues to serve the public interest with revelations that the US Government is quietly paying UK authorites to extend the reach of its vast and indiscriminate surveillance programmes", said Australian Greens communications spokesperson Senator Scott Ludlam.

Australian Greens Senator Scott Ludlam, Communications spokesperson 31July 2013.

Australian Greens Senator Scott Ludlam has condemned the conviction of US Private First Class Bradley Manning on 20 counts attracting a maximum of 136 years in a military prison.

"This ruling sets a dangerous precedent for whistleblowers and a free press in the United States and globally," Senator Ludlam said.

"We await his sentence, however, it is impossible to describe this trial as having been fair. It entailed many closed sessions with key documents withheld from Manning.

The Federal Government has refused to turn over any documents regarding its plans for a data retention scheme, rejecting in entirety a Freedom of Information request from Greens Senator Scott Ludlam.

Senator Ludlam requested "letters, emails, file notes, records of phone conversations or meetings, memos or reports about the drafting of legislation or regulations on data retention between the Attorney General's Department and the Office of Parliamentary Counsel". It was denied in full this afternoon.

The Greens have called on Telstra to immediately disclose details of a deal, revealed by Crikey today, which was struck 12 years ago to allow the FBI and US Department of Justice to monitor calls and data traffic via the company's undersea cables.

SENATE STANDING COMMITTEE ON LEGAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS ATTORNEY-GENERAL'S DEPARTMENT

Group 3

Program 1.6

Question No. 27

Senator Ludlam asked the following question at the hearing on 29 May 2013:

Senator LUDLAM: ... I understand that at some stage there was an interdepartmental committee within the government that was set up to look into that issue. Is that the case?