Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull says new data retention laws have improved privacy protection across the country.
Mr Turnbull's opinions are diametrically opposed to the Greens and several cross bench senators who voted against the new laws.
Australians will now have two years of their metadata stored by phone and internet providers after the controversial bill passed parliament on Thursday evening.
Liberal Democrat David Leyonhjelm condemned the laws as an ineffective anti-terrorism tool.
Following the bill's passing, Mr Turnbull said the latest suite of national security legislation was good for privacy, police and national security.
"I think it's definitely an improvement in the privacy direction," he told an audience at the University of NSW on Thursday night.
"On the one hand we have privacy and on the other hand we have security.
"I think we've found the right balance."
Metadata includes the identity of a subscriber and the source, destination, date, time, duration and type of communication.
It excludes the contents of a message, phone call or email, and subscribers' web-browsing history.
"I think we should just actually refer to it as call charge records," the communications minister said.
Mr Turnbull joined a panel on risk management at the university where he said the new laws would help police combat terrorism, child pornography and drug trafficking.
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