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Australia
This page considers regulation of online bombmaking information
in Australia.
It covers -
introduction
As the preceding pages suggest, Australia has not been
immune for expressions of anxiety about use of the net
for accesing and stributing 'bomb recipes'.
In 1999 Warren Horton, the then National Librarian, commented
as part of his Australian Libraries Week Oration that
While
much of the debate has focused on control of pornography,
there has also been an undercurrent flowing through
the [Parliamentary] Committee's hearings about access
to material on the internet which is freely available
in print form in the majority of libraries right now.
This includes for example material on bomb-making, drugs
and shoplifting, examples often used of what is argued
to be questionable material. The constant mention of
bomb-making fascinates me, because I could find information
easily on this in all state libraries and many large
public libraries. The National Library of Australia
also holds a wealth of material, indeed much material
published by US Government agencies, relevant to bomb-making.
In
July 2007 breathless reporting featured claims by academic
Nick O'Brien that five Australian cities rate in the top
10 English-speaking cities for Google searches on bomb-making
(Perth was reportedly ahead of Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne
and Sydney but as of December 2008 has not seen an outbreak
of illegal pyrotechnics).
O'Brien reportedly commented that "We know that people
get their instructions on how to make bombs from the internet"
and that "criminal elements" including "bikie
gangs", could be responsible for the search numbers.
The numbers could, of course, be attributable to searches
by bored teenagers, journalists and bored academics. Vombs
have not been a major modus operandi for Australian bikies,
who have instead favoured the shotgun (information about
which is also available online and in libraries), the
sledgehammer and the meat cleaver. People who are prepared
to blow others up are presumably unfussed about padlocks
and the sacred nature of private property ... and thus
prepared to steal explosives from civil engineering sites
- so much more convenient than having to brew their own
bombs.
Alarms about who is searching for what (and why) might
thus be regarded with some caution.
commodities
In implementing a national agreement Australian states
and territories have enacted restrictions on access to
security sensitive ammonium nitrate (SSAN).
Retailers and suppliers of SSAN fertilisers must be registered
and are not permitted to sell or supply SSAN for private
'home use' in concentrations greater than 45% ammonium
nitrate. Those distributors can only provide SSAN to licensed
users, primarily agriculturalists. All licence holders
must undergo a security clearance
involving police and ASIO.
Similar arrangements are in place in the UK, Spain and
other nations, underpinned by restrictions - effective
or otherwise - on storage of SSAN.
The 1991 United Nations Convention on the Marking of Plastic
Explosives for the Purpose of Detection (Marplex
Convention) covers plastic explosives - which might
be used for civil engineering and other non-military purposes.
Australian accession to the Convention took place in 2007,
broadly establishing an offence to "manufacture,
possess, import and export plastic explosives" that
are not marked with a prescribed chemical detection agent.
The Australian states and territories have discrete legislation
governing regulation of explosives, including plastic
explosives, with requirements to obtain a licence for
use of explosives or to import explosives.
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