South Australian Liberal senator Alex Antic says flyers featuring an image of him, and targeting an Adelaide council’s rollout of CCTV and other technologies, were distributed with neither his knowledge nor consent.
Key points:
- Salisbury Mayor Gillian Aldridge is concerned about potential disruptions at next week’s council meeting
- More than 50,000 flyers have been distributed across the Salisbury Council area, the mayor says
- Liberal senator Alex Antic says he has asked the group to stop using his name and image
The flyers, which have appeared in letterboxes in recent days, urge Salisbury council residents to “stop Big Brother technologies” and the introduction of “total surveillance” across the local government area.
They also call on residents to “show up in numbers” and create a “massive presence” outside Monday night’s council meeting so that councillors “understand that they need to cease any further action immediately”.
Salisbury Mayor Gillian Aldridge she believed tens of thousands of pamphlets objecting to the council’s ‘Smart Cities’ initiative had been distributed, some of which with the stamp of the ‘No Smart Cities Action Group’ (NOSCAG).
“Their whole idea of a Big Brother thing is really quite ridiculous,” Ms Aldridge told ABC Radio Adelaide’s Stacey Lee and Nikolai Beilharz.
“There have been 52,000 pamphlets put out with no name on, no telephone number to identify who’s put it out … and encouraging everyone to come to the council meeting, which is really quite frightening.”
Ms Aldridge rejected suggestions that the Smart Cities program involved listening devices and facial recognition technology, and said the community was onboard with “more CCTV”.
“Smart Cities is all about using technology to improve the quality of life of residents, this includes things like pedestrian monitoring,” she said.
“[An] older person walks across a street and the lights change too quickly, we’d recognise that and the lights could be changed so that people could comfortably go across the road.
“It’s a program to increase your safety and that includes the ability for us to know what your needs are, and that’s not invading your privacy with anything at all.”
Senator Antic has previously been critical of a Smart City program in another Adelaide council area, but said he had nothing to do with the flyers in Salisbury.
He said while he was “aware of the NOSCAG group” he was not affiliated with it.
“I understand that there has been material circulating around the northern suburbs referring to a social media post I put up regarding surveillance,” he said in a statement.
“It is nothing to do with me and I have contacted the group to ask them to remove references to me.
“They were distributed without my knowledge or consent.”
Last week, the City of Onkaparinga council meeting descended into chaos when protesters allegedly tried to enter the chamber.
Ms Aldridge said she was alarmed at the prospect of similar scenes in Adelaide’s north.
“I’m concerned for the safety of my council and my staff,” she said.
