George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Collins, for at last asking me a question since you have been the shadow spokesman in the Senate. Yes, Senator Collins, you are absolutely correct that the government has no intentions of collecting a person's web-surfing history. The instruction that we have given to those who are preparing legislation makes it clear that we have no intention of asking for that material to be collected. As I explained to Senator Ludlam when he asked about this matter yesterday, we are not asking for any additional powers for the agencies in relation to metadata, nor are we asking the telecoms providers and the ISPs to do anything beyond what they currently do. But we are concerned that with changing business practices, and in particular changing practices in relation to business records, there may be a degradation of capacity, which is why the government, on 5 August, made an in-principle decision to mandate for the retention of metadata. You have to distinguish entirely, Senator Collins, between that requirement and the legislation to provide the agencies with new powers. That is a separate issue. We are not asking for any additional powers in relation to metadata at all.