Information about the Inquiry 

Inquiry into the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Amendment Bill 2008

Information about the Inquiry 

On 19 March 2008, the Senate referred the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Amendment Bill 2008 to the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee for inquiry and report by 1 May 2008.

This bill will amend the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 (the TIA Act) to extend sunset provisions which relate to activities that can be lawfully undertaken by network administrators of specific public sector agencies to protect their corporate networks and maintain the professional standards of employees.

The bill will amend the TIA Act to extend the sunset provisions which apply to the definitions of when a communication is ‘passing over’ a telecommunications network, as well as the definition of an ‘intended recipient’ of a communication by a further 18 months. The current provisions are set to sunset on 13 June 2008.

The bill is also intended to improve the effectiveness of the Australian telecommunications access regime by:

The Committee invites written submissions which should be sent to:

Committee Secretary
Senate Standing Committees on Legal and Constitutional Affairs
Department of the Senate
PO Box 6100
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Australia

The closing date for submissions is Wednesday, 9 April 2008.

Persons lodging submissions should note that this inquiry is into the bill only, and to be considered relevant to the inquiry, submissions must address the provisions of the bill.

The Committee requests that where possible, submissions should also be provided by email to legcon.sen@aph.gov.au, preferably as MS Word or RTF format documents. Notes to assist in preparing submissions are available from the website https://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/wit_sub/index.htm or telephone the Secretariat on 02 6277 3560, fax: 02 6277 5794, or e-mail at the above address.

Once the Committee accepts your submission, it becomes a confidential committee document and is protected by Parliamentary Privilege. You must not release your submission without the Committee’s permission. If you do, it is not protected by Parliamentary Privilege. At some stage during the inquiry, the Committee normally makes submissions public. Please indicate if you want your submission to be kept confidential.

Inquiries from hearing and speech impaired people should be directed to the Parliament House TTY number (02 6277 7799). Adobe also provides tools for the blind and visually impaired to access PDF documents. These tools are available at: http://access.adobe.com/. If you require any special arrangements in order to enable you to participate in a committee inquiry, please contact the Committee Secretary.

For further information, contact:

Committee Secretary
Senate Standing Committees on Legal and Constitutional Affairs
PO Box 6100
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Australia

Phone: +61 2 6277 3560
Fax: +61 2 6277 5794
Email: legcon.sen@aph.gov.au