On 4 March 2015, the Attorney-General, Senator the Hon George Brandis QC, asked the Committee to inquire into and report on the question of 'how to deal with the authorisation of a disclosure or use of telecommunications data for the purpose of determining the identity of a journalist's source'.
The inquiry followed a recommendation made by the Committee in its Advisory report on the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Amendment (Data Retention) Bill 2014 that it conducts a separate review on this matter.
On 8 April 2015 the Committee tabled a report concluding its inquiry into the authorisation of access to telecommunications data to identify a journalist's source.