Assange gears up for Australian Senate

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is set to contest elections for the Australian Senate and claims that if elected his party will press for stronger safeguards for privacy against surveillance by security agencies.

According to Sydney Morning Herald, Assange said that it is disturbing to find that Australians communicating with US citizens are being watch over by the US agencies for possible terrorist threat.

In the wake of the recent revelations by Snowden about the US secret snooping programme, Assange said that his party will introduce legislation to require law enforcement and security agencies to obtain judicial warrants before they access telecommunications and internet metadata.

Assange further said that his party will push for a twice-yearly publication of number of warrants applied for and granted to agencies.

According to the report, Assange insisted that Australians must have legally enforceable right to privacy and any breach to it by individuals or agencies should be subject to legal sanctions.

A Roy Morgan telephone poll conducted last week found 21 per cent of electors would consider voting for the WikiLeaks Party in the Senate, the report added.