An interview with George Brandis has been labelled a "train wreck" after the attorney-general failed to clarify what information will be recorded under the government's proposed data retention policy.
Senator Brandis was due to speak at a forum hosted by the Australian Human Rights Commission in Sydney today, but cancelled shortly before the event began.
During an interview on Sky News yesterday, Senator Brandis struggled to explain details of the proposed policy, which would require telecommunication companies to record users' phone and internet activity.
Under the proposal, the information would be kept for up to two years and be available to law enforcement agencies investigating crimes, without requiring a warrant.
Tony Abbott said in an earlier interview that websites people visited would be recorded but the government was not interested in "content."
"It's not what you’re doing on the internet, it's the sites you’re visiting," Mr Abbott said.
But when Sky News journalist David Speers quizzed Senator Brandis on this explanation of metadata, the attorney general only caused further confusion.
"Well it wouldn't extended to, for example, web surfing," he said. "What people are viewing on the internet is not going to be caught."
Seeking further clarification, Speers asked: "So it's not the sites you're visiting?"
Senator Brandis answered: "Well, um, what people are viewing on the internet when they web surf is not going to be caught, what will be caught is the web address they communicate to."
Unsatisfied, Speers continued to probe this explanation, later asking: “So if I go to the Sky News website, the Australian website, a more-questionable website…is that what we’re talking about here?”
Senator Brandis responded that what customers viewed on the internet was not what the government was interested in.
“What the security agencies want to know, to be retained, is the electronic address of the website that the web user is visiting," he said.
He then conceded that data collected would include websites visited but not the content people browsed within those websites.
Twitter users were quick to poke fun of the interview, with many pointing out that it was the attorney-general's own policy causing him confusion.
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