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

Senator Ludlam, you seem to be missing the point here. That is not the work of item 6 in the table in proposed section 187AA. The work of item 6, or indeed each of the six items in the table, is to describe an obligation, not to enact a technical specification, but to describe the character of an obligation, and that is what it does. There will be an implementation phase, as you know, over 18 months after this bill is enacted. Indeed, one of the principal purposes of the implementation phase is to enable the operationalisation of these obligations by the ISPs and the telecommunications services providers to be settled. That is not what this bill does; it is not what the bill purports to do.

Might I point out to you that it is no part of the purpose of this legislation to, as you put it rather colourfully, follow people around. It is no part of the purpose of this bill to follow people around. It is the purpose of this bill to require the retention of metadata of the six categories or kinds described in the schedule to which you are addressing your questions. The technical specification as to how that obligation is to be given effect is not what this bill does.