Tony Sheldon (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to highlight what I believe to be one of the most disturbing and dystopian experiments being conducted in the world today. I speak of the plans by the Chinese government to construct a vast ecosystem of social, economic and political surveillance and control over its citizens.

This social credit system, as it is widely known, is a work in progress and is best understood as a set of pilot systems being built and operated by the central government and local authorities in coordination with corporate digital platforms. These pilot systems are not dissimilar to the credit scores which are widely used by banks and other businesses in many countries to determine whether a person can borrow money and, if so, how much. But the longer-term aim of these systems goes much further than determining the criminal history or financial creditworthiness of a person. The aim is to bring together a vast swathe of fragmented digital datasets to monitor the actions, economic activity and political behaviour of citizens and companies, and to use that information to reward and punish them based on how trustworthy or how compliant the authorities deem them to be. Already in China people are being denied the right to travel or are finding obstacles to getting credit or applying for jobs based on their perceived trustworthiness.

Human rights observers believe that these systems are in their infancy. They say that the accuracy, intrusiveness and enforcement varies greatly across China's provinces, but the early evidence we have of the intent of the authorities and the potential for abuse of social credit systems is deeply concerning. The ability of ordinary people to challenge the authorities, get access to their records or have them amended is severely limited. Even questioning the authorities about your record can invite retaliation. What is unfolding in China should alarm everyone who cares about human rights, labour rights and consumer rights not just in China but around the world. We are already seeing the terrifying experiment that is being conducted now in far Western China, where the Uygur people are being subjected to perhaps the most advanced example of a surveillance state the world has seen. They are feeling the full force of police harassment, arbitrary incarceration, forced labour and family separation and of the denial of free speech, freedom of religion, freedom of association and freedom of assembly. But they are also being subjected to the fast-developing data enabled surveillance state of CCTV cameras, messaging interception, facial recognition based monitoring and forced installation of spyware on their phones.

We have to face the fact that the social credit surveillance system will be extended to overseas Chinese populations. This includes the citizens of Hong Kong, Chinese Australian citizens and students resident in Australia and Australian companies that operate in China. Chinese Australians are likely to feel the impact of this system when they want to travel in China to visit relatives and when they make transactions or communicate on WeChat or use payments systems like Alipay.

In Senate estimates hearings last month I asked how the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is preparing for the emergence of the social credit system. The department is aware that the social credit system can or will ultimately impact Chinese Australian citizens, students studying in Australia and Australian businesses that have connections to China. But I did express my surprise that there didn't seem to be a very well developed view on how Australia needs to prepare for the surveillance tentacles that are coming, if they are not here already.

It is incumbent on democracies, including Australia, to fight for human rights, labour rights and consumer rights abroad. We must also lead by example and ensure that we are protecting the privacy and freedoms of our own citizens. When we rightly cast a critical eye over the rising surveillance culture in China we must also be on guard that those same human freedoms are not being undermined by stealth here at home either by our own intelligence and law enforcement agencies or by those of another country.