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

I move:

That—

(a) the Senate notes that:

(i) the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act requires that the overseeing Minister (currently the Attorney-General), as soon as practicable after 30 June each year, cause to be prepared a written report on the operation of the Act that relates to the year ending on that 30 June,

(ii) the report contains critical information on law enforcement access to Australians' telecommunications data which is directly pertinent to the Parliament's consideration of the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Amendment (Data Retention) Bill,

(iii) for the past 3 years, this report has been tabled in November or December each year, and

(iv) the Government has not yet tabled the report for the year ended 30 June 2014; and

(b) there be laid on the table by the Attorney-General, no later than noon on Thursday, 19 March 2015, the report on the operation of the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act for the year ended 30 June 2014.

Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I seek leave to make a short statement.

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted for one minute.

Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you. The government does not support this motion. Section 164 of the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 requires the annual report to be tabled up to 15 sitting days after the Attorney-General has received it. The government has yet to receive the report. The preparation of the annual report involves the compilation of information from over 100 Commonwealth, state and territory agencies. The time at which tabling occurs has varied from year to year under successive governments and has previously occurred any time from December through to late March. As much as Senator Ludlam would wish this to be some sort of government conspiracy, I regret to advise him that that is not the case.

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

Mr President, I seek leave to make a short statement.

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted for one minute.

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

Thank you. Senator Fifield—through you, Mr President—the problem with conspiracy theories is that some of them are more than just theories. I move this motion—and I hope to get opposition and crossbench support for it—because it has been past practice for the last three years for government reports on warrantless metadata collection and the warranted surveillance of Australians to be tabled in November or December. I would have thought the government would want this parliament to be in possession of the full facts of warrantless and warranted surveillance of Australians, rather than withholding the production of this report. It is one of the most important pieces of evidence that this country has as to the annual, steady, year-on-year increase of warrantless surveillance of Australians whether; warranted surveillance has stayed roughly consistent. So I would urge the government, if it does not want to be accused of withholding essential information, to find out why the Attorney-General's Department has not passed that material on to the minister, and to table it immediately.

Question agreed to.