Australian government shelves metadata collection plan

Powerful parliamentary committee raised concerns about forcing web and phone companies to collect and store users' data
The committee said the attorney general’s department should review 'the threshold for access to telecommunications data'.
The committee said the attorney general’s department should review 'the threshold for access to telecommunications data'. Photograph: Alamy









The committee also looked at the fact that Australian users’ metadata can be accessed by a huge number of federal and state government agencies, simply by filling out a form, and without any need for a warrant. This happened almost 300,000 times in 2011-12, with access granted to bodies as varied as the tax office and the RSPCA.

The committee recommended such warrantless access should be reined in.

It said the attorney general’s department should review “the threshold for access to telecommunications data” and that this review “should focus on reducing the number of agencies able to access telecommunications data by using gravity of conduct which may be investigated utilising telecommunications data as the threshold on which access is allowed”.

In a sharply-worded criticism, the committee said one reason it had been difficult to make clear recommendations about the data retention proposal was that the government had been so unclear about exactly what it had in mind.

“This lack of information from the attorney general and her department had two major consequences. First, it meant that submitters to the inquiry could not be sure as to what they were being asked to comment on. Second, as the committee was not sure of the exact nature of what the attorney general and her department was proposing it was seriously hampered in the conduct of the inquiry and the process of obtaining evidence from witnesses,” the committee wrote.

The shadow attorney general, Senator George Brandis, has said previously that “the public would accept a level of mandatory data retention in relation to telecommunications”. He said: “They would accept the logic of a regime being technology-neutral and reaching the internet, but my political judgment is that there is no way the public wouldn't react very strongly against a proposal unless they were absolutely guaranteed that their internet browsing history or use would not be subject of the mandatory retention regime.''

The committee was chaired by Labor MP Anthony Byrne. Brandis was a member.

It did not deal directly with the recent revelations from Edward Snowden.

Dreyfus said “the recent events in Boston and London highlight the ongoing threat of terrorism and the need to ensure our intelligence agencies have the tools they need to keep Australians safe and secure”.

Greens communications spokesman Senator Scott Ludlam said the committee’s findings meant the government should immediately abandon the mandatory data retention plan.

He said he was worried they meant Asio might get more powers to hack the computer information of people it was investigating.