The Federal Opposition today called on the Government to publicly release an exposure draft of its legislation to require the mandatory retention of metadata for up to two years.
The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security unanimously recommended in May 2013, when Attorney-General George Brandis was a committee member, that the Government publish an exposure draft of any legislation that proposed a mandatory data retention regime.
The committee further recommended that the legislation should be subject to further scrutiny by a Parliamentary Committee.
Shadow Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus and Shadow Minister for Communications Jason Clare have written to the Government asking them to adhere to the recommendation made by the committee and release an exposure draft as well as commit to sending the legislation to a Parliamentary Committee.
There has been much speculation about the content and depth of the Government’s proposed data retention scheme and it has been abundantly clear that this is a complex area with a wide array of privacy implications and cost considerations.
The Australian public should have as much opportunity as possible to consider the proposed regime and provide their views before this proposal becomes law.
TUESDAY 28 OCTOBER 2014
MEDIA CONTACT: Ryan Hamilton 02 9790 2466
