ENCRYPTION BILL

Last night the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security handed down a bipartisan report with 17 important recommendations for amendment to the Telecommunications and Other Legislation Amendment (Assistance and Access) Bill.

 

The government provided Labor with more than 167 amendments, totalling 49 pages, at 6:30am this morning, and yet more amendments at 9:22am.

 

In the limited time we have had to scrutinise these amendments, it is clear that they do not fully reflect the recommendations put forward by the committee. 

 

Therefore Labor will move some minor but important amendments in the Senate to make the amended bill conform with the recommendations of the committee. The government already tried to cut off the committee’s work before – it shouldn’t ignore it completely.

 

Labor is working constructively with the crossbench to secure support for our amendments.