By Jason Scott Oct
29, 2014 11:50 PM ET
Australia’s
government says legislation to force telecommunication companies to retain
users’ data for two years will beef up its ability to counter terrorism
threats.
The law to force
providers to keep so-called metadata, which excludes content of messages and
calls, so it can be accessed without warrant by law-enforcement agencies was
introduced in the lower house today. The need for the legislation was
underscored by four planned mass-casualty terrorism attacks being foiled in
recent years by access to user data, the nation’s intelligence chief, Duncan
Lewis, told reporters in Canberra today.
“Metadata is vital to
nearly every counter-terrorism, counter-espionage, cyber-security, organized
crime, murder, rape, kidnapping, child sex abuse and child pornography
investigation,” Attorney-General George Brandis said in a statement today.
The new laws are the
latest in a series that Prime Minister Tony
Abbott’s government is enacting to boost security after
Australia last month raised its terrorism alert to the highest level in a
decade. The metadata legislation has triggered privacy concerns in the nation
amid a global backlash against government surveillance exposed by former U.S.
National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.
The Telecommunications
(Interception and Access) Amendment (Data Retention) Bill 2014will
force telecommunication companies to retain just the metadata, not the content
of data sent, Brandis said. Metadata includes the identity of the source and
subscriber of the communication and the date and time it was sent.
Illegal Downloads
The laws are necessary
because “many telecommunication companies are not retaining some types of data
or are not retaining it for long enough to enable our law enforcement and
security agencies to investigate and prosecute serious crimes,” Brandis said.
The legislation could
also be used to target illegal downloading of movies and music, piracy and
cybercrime, Australian Federal Police Commissioner Andrew Colvin said today.
To become law the
legislation will need to be passed in the Senate, the upper house, where the
government doesn’t hold the balance of power. The laws “will have a chilling
effect on democracy and our institutions on free speech in this country,”
independent Senator Nick Xenophon told reporters in Canberra yesterday.
Unknown Costs
While the government
would make a “substantial contribution” to help information providers deal with
the cost of data retention, it is yet to provide a final figure on how much it
will cost, Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull said today. Companies will have
up to two years to implement the plan.
IiNet Ltd., a
Perth-based listed Internet service provider, will see its
costs rise by hundreds of millions of dollars due to the legislation, its chief
regulatory officer, Steve Dalby, said in Canberra yesterday. “There’s a
complete lack of a business-like approach” by the government, Dalby said.
“There is no case made, no evidence presented, there are no facts provided.”
Police in Australia
last month carried out their largest anti-terrorism raid, foiling an alleged
beheading plot. About 185 Australians have supported Islamic State in Iraq and Syria,
with at least 70 now fighting in the region with terrorist organizations,
according to Foreign Minister Julie
Bishop.
Foreign Fighters
Australia’s Senate
yesterday passed the so-called Foreign Fighters Bill aimed at stopping citizens
from fighting with extremists in Iraq and Syria. Those laws will boost security
agency powers, strengthen border security, cancel welfare payments for people
involved in terrorism and allow a maximum 10-year prison term for Australians
who have traveled to areas afflicted by terrorism without a valid reason.
The bill also
criminalizes encouragement or promotion of terrorist acts, which has created
concern that it may be used to prosecute journalists involved in whistle blowing
or reporting on terrorism.
The laws “could see
Australian journalists sent to jail for simply reporting how terror suspects
have been recruited,” Greens Senator Penny Wright said in a statement today.
To contact the
reporter on this story: Jason Scott in Canberra at jscott14@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors
responsible for this story: Rosalind Mathieson atrmathieson3@bloomberg.net Andrew
Davis, Andy Sharp
http://www.bloomberg.com/
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