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:
- clarifying agencies’ reporting requirements under the TIA Act;
-
clarifying that multiple telecommunications devices can be
intercepted on the one named person warrant; and
-
making minor and technical amendments arising from the
transfer of duties from the Australian Federal Police (AFP) to the
Attorney-General's Department following the passage of the
Telecommunications Interception) Amendment Act 2006.
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
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