Scott Ludlam (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I might throw to one of my colleagues; I do not feel like I am getting very far. Because we are reading from the same page of the same bill, I understand very well that there is not a quantitative obligation and that you are not required, as a service provider, to track people within a few tens of metres. Nonetheless, I think it is well within the scope of the bill and a reasonable question to put to you; when you place this obligation on a mobile phone service provider, because this is not material that is retained or held for very long periods of time at a moment, I think that users of telecommunications products have a right to know the degree or the accuracy to which government agencies will heretofore be able to track them around the landscape. Is it within a few kilometres, within a few hundreds of metres or within a few tens of metres? I am talking about the example of a mobile phone handset in a metropolitan area surrounded by half a dozen cell towers or so. I guess that this debate is going to run for a while. If you do not have the requisite technical information to hand then I would ask that you take it on notice and provide it to us.