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

Obviously the government does not accept this amendment. It comes as no surprise to the honourable senator. Given the general prohibition on the disclosure of telecommunications information in the Privacy Act, which requires that information is only used in relation to the purpose for which it was collected, CrimTrac’s ability to undertake this role is directly linked to its inclusion in the definition of an ‘enforcement agency’ within the legislation. The removal of CrimTrac from this definition would mean that agencies would be required to establish their own infrastructure to access this information, increasing the burden on smaller agencies to develop their own contractual arrangements with information providers. Obviously this would divert resources, be inconvenient and undermine the purposes of the act.

Question negatived.