Data retention 'under active consideration': Brandis

Independent National Security Legislation Monitor to be retained

 

Attorney-General George Brandis has confirmed that the government is still mulling introducing mandatory data retention for telcos, but it will not be included in the first tranche of national security-related legislation being introduced in parliament today.

Data retention is "under active consideration by the government," Brandis told a press conference this afternoon.

"I might point out to you that as recently as yesterday the House of Commons [in the UK] passed a new data retention statute," the attorney-general said.

"This is very much the way Western nations are going. It's been the case in Europe under the European Data Retention Directive for some little while now."

In April the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) struck down the directive, ruling that it interfered with fundamental privacy rights. Read more