User:Australianmetadata/sandbox

The Australian Government’s interest in establishing a data retention scheme can be dated back to at least June 2010, when media outlets including the Sydney Morning Herald and ZD Net reported that the Government was considering such a proposal. On 4 May 2012, the Government then led by Julia Gillard announced plans to review via public consultation a range of national security legislation, including that which is covered “lawful access to telecommunications… to ensure that vital investigative tools are not lost as telecommunications providers change their business practices and begin to delete data more regularly.” In July 2012, the Attorney- General’s Department released, “Equipping Australia against Emerging and Evolving Threats,” a discussion paper focused on the proposed national security reforms. The first chapter of this paper outlined the terms of reference for an inquiry to be conducted by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security (PJCIS) into the potential reform of National Security legislation, specifically the four following Acts: The Discussion paper grouped these proposals into three different categories: those that the Government wished to progress, that the Government was considering and those on which the Government was seeking the opinion of the Committee. Despite the paper containing eighteen proposals and forty-one individual reforms, the suggestion that carriage service providers (CSPs) be required to retain information on the way in which Australians use the Internet and their mobile telephones, elicited much consternation and comment from the community. This was a point that the Parliamentary Committee highlighted in its final report to the Government: “The potential data retention regime attracted a large amount of criticism and comment from organizations and concerned individuals. These organizations and individuals generally considered any potential data retention regime a significant risk to both the security of their privacy. In addition to these general comments, the Committee received a large volume of form letter correspondence.” On 24 June 2013, the Committee issued its report and put the decision on whether to progress with a mandatory data retention scheme back in the hands of the Government. On same day that the report was released, former Attorney General Mark Dreyfus announced that the Government would not be pursuing its proposal. On the 30th October 2014, the Australian Government, led by Tony Abbott, introduced the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Amendment (Data Retention) Bill 2014 into the House of Representatives.On the 21st November 2014, the Attorney- General, Senator George Brandis, wrote to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, referring the provisions of the Bill for inquiry. Chaired by Dan Tehan, the Member for Wannon, the Committee received 204 submissions, 31 supplementary submissions and held three public hearings. On the 27th February 2015, the Committee presented their report, containing 39 recommendations to the Government. On March 3rd 2015, the Government announced that it would be accepting all the recommendations of the Committee. This however, was not sufficient to satisfy the concerns of the opposition Labor Party, who only agreed to support the passage of the Bill through the Senate after amendments were made to protect journalistic sources. On the 26th March 2015, the Senate voted in favour of the Bill. On the 13th April 2015, the Governor-General gave his royal ascent and the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Amendment (Data Retention) Act 2015 entered into law.
 * Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979
 * Telecommunications Act 1997
 * Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Act 1979
 * Intelligence Services Act 2001