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

I did begin to address those, but I might also point out that, under the Telecommunications Act, it is an offence with a maximum penalty of two years imprisonment for employees of carriers and carriage service providers to unlawfully disclose customers' metadata. It is also an offence with a maximum penalty of two years imprisonment for officers of government agencies to unlawfully use or disclose metadata their agency has obtained in the course of an investigation. And there are other protections too, Senator Muir, but let me take the opportunity to point out to you that, under the current law, there is nothing to prevent as many as 80 government agencies and entities that are not actually government agencies—even, in some states, the RSPCA—from accessing metadata. Under this legislation, the number of agencies is reduced to 20.