The Independent Member for Denison, Andrew Wilkie, will today voice his opposition to the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Amendment (Data Retention) Bill 2014.
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“I oppose the metadata bill for a range of reasons,” Mr Wilkie said. “The most significant problem with the Government’s data retention proposal is that it is an unjustifiable and unreasonable extension of the power of the state.
“Rather than expanding access to metadata, the Government should be doing quite the opposite and putting safeguards on what metadata access already exists. The fact is that authorities are already accessing metadata over 300,000 times a year without a warrant. Why should metadata be the exception when it comes to having your property searched?
“When a data retention scheme was first proposed a few years ago it was on the basis that it would only be for national security purposes, but already we’ve seen the justification for the scheme expand to other forms of crime. This is just the sort of incrementalism which makes such reform especially problematic.
“I also question this bill’s usefulness on national security. History teaches us that the most competent terrorists are innovative and will know to use offshore communications services. They already rely heavily on computers that can no longer be reached via the conventional internet, and that large amount of web content that is not indexed by standard search engines.
“In reaching this decision I was strongly influenced by my time on the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security in the 43rd Parliament, when the Committee conducted an investigation into metadata retention and received thousands of submissions from people very strongly opposed to the prospect. Frankly I’m in no doubt that the majority of Australians would not support this bill.”
Andrew Wilkie, Independent Member for Denison
