A parliamentary inquiry is examining the Federal Government's proposal to allow law enforcement agencies new powers for dealing with online crime.
So, what is the proposed legislation?
It is called the Surveillance Legislation Amendment Identify and Disrupt Bill 2020. It aims to disrupt and prevent online terrorism and child exploitation.
So when could this proposal become law?
The Surveillance Legislation Amendment, Identify and Disrupt Bill 2020 was introduced to Parliament in December last year by Federal Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton. It is currently before Parliament, but is being assessed by a bi-partisan Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee.
What elements of the Bill are attracting particular scrutiny?
The bill would give police access to three new warrants which would grant investigators extra powers. Any crime punishable by a sentence of three years or more could be targeted with the new surveillance powers. This is the main issue raised by the Human Rights Law centre, and the Law Council of Australia.
Law Council President Dr Jacoba Brasch ((brash)) says the bill would substantially expand Federal Police powers, which merits detailed scrutiny.
"The new powers depart sharply from the traditional focus of investigative powers on the collection of admissible evidence of specific offences. They also have the potential to cause significant loss or damage to large numbers of non-suspects who are lawfully using computer networks or the systems being targeted. We are also concerned the new powers are disproportionately broad to the threats of serious and organised cyber crime to which they are directed. There is also significant potential for overlap with the existing collection powers of ASIO (Australian Security Intelligence Organisation)."
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