Chris Ellison (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Justice and Customs) Share this | Hansard source

This relates to government amendments (5) and (6), which are next on the list. It relates to the Australian Federal Police. It might assist the committee if I just outline a bit of background to this. The Australian Federal Police requested an amendment to the bill to allow the AFP to copy all incoming and outgoing emails to and from the AFP network for professional standards purposes. Accordingly, the definition of ‘intended recipient’ and ‘passing over’ will contain an AFP-specific definition in the bill to mean, for AFP purposes only, a network administrator lawfully engaged by the AFP. This will mean that, for the AFP only, a communication is no longer passing over the telecommunications system, and therefore not subject to the general prohibition and offences against interception, as soon as a communication can be accessed by a network administrator employed by the AFP, for example, at the firewall or the mail sweeper server.

I note that the issue of network administration applies to all organisations, both public and private, and is one in relation to which the Attorney-General’s Department is undertaking further work. A policy proposal regarding a long-term solution to the conflict between the general prohibition against interception and the need to allow appropriate access for network administrators to conduct their activities lawfully is yet to be finalised as it is still the subject of ongoing consultation with interested stakeholders. So it really is a question of the AFP being able to monitor its own network, and of course that is a request by the AFP for the monitoring of professional standards. I will talk to (5) and (6), if I may, because I think that clarifies the position.