This week, the Federal Senate will debate new legislation that effectively allows mobile phones to be turned into tracking devices without a warrant. The legislation, the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Amendments Bill, was passed by The House of Representatives earlier this year with the support of both the Coalition and Labor. However, the Law Council of Australia, Electronic Frontiers Australia, the Democrats and the Greens have all expressed concerns about the legislation that they say places an extraordinary amount of unchecked power in the hands of law enforcement agencies. Greens Senator Kerry Nettle says the legislation represents a major threat to privacy and civil rights.

The New South Wales Government has announced that it will pay the operators of Sydney's desalination plant more that 50 million dollars a year for twenty years whether or not it provides a drop of drinking water. The New South Wales Water Utilities Minister, Nathan Rees, says that the additional costs that Sydney consumers will pay every year is not that different from an insurance policy.

Australia’s Great Barrier Reef Marine Park could become the largest underwater park in the world, encompassing the entire Coral Sea, if the Federal government proceeds with a plan put forward by the World Wide Fund for Nature Australia. In an attempt to protect the area site, WWF Australia has launched a campaign calling for the government to take action following concerns that excessive illegal shark fishing and climate change are endangering marine life there.

As The Wire noted last week a new indigenous group, The National Aboriginal Alliance, has been formed with the aim of combating some parts of the federal governments northern territory intervention plan. On Friday the group held a joint meeting in Alice Springs, outlining some of their concerns and aims further. CAAMA radio was on hand to cover the event and they recorded some interviews and speeches from the speakers. First up some comments by Pat Turner the CEO of National Indigenous Television, outlining her concerns about the scrapping of the CDEP scheme, which employed many indigenous people in remote communities.

With the federal elections looming, research conducte by the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) has shown that a large section of young people are disinterested in th eelectoral process and in voting. THis has prompted four Australian youths to set up "I VOTE AUSTRALIA dot com" a gen-y friendly website aimed at bridging the gap between young Aussies and the democratic process. Using youth friendly media platforms, Myspace and Facebook, the foursome are making electoral enrolment forms more widely accessible to its targeted demographic of 17-25 year olds. Now its seeking corporate donations. "I VOTE AUSTRALIA DOT COM's" co-founder James Griffin spoke to The Wire about the website's goals and the state of political disengagement among Australian youth.