Lee Rhiannon (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you for the advice, Mr Acting Deputy President. With regard to the issue of collecting metadata, what the Attorney-General is doing to his own office is very concerning. The standing of the Attorney-General is very important to the whole nation in terms of the upholding of justice. We have already seen abuses of metadata. When the Australian intelligence agencies were interested in the phones of the former Indonesian President and his wife—leading figures in Indonesia—it was an issue of metadata. Again, that shows how these services have been abusing the use of that data.

Ever since the terrorist attack of September 2001, crime, spy and security agencies have been demanding more and more powers to reach into our private individual lives. This incursion for mandatory metadata retention will not make us safer or more secure. Mandatory data retention strikes at the very heart of the relationship between governments and the public. This bill, which is set to be passed on the combined vote of the Liberal, National and Labor parties, is an enormous setback as it delivers an increase in the power of the state over private individuals for indiscriminate surveillance. The campaign to stop this level of surveillance and to have this bill repealed is I believe set to become one of the most important issues in Australia.