Privacy campaigners have welcomed the government's announcement that it will drop plans to force telcos to store two years of data for law enforcement purposes.
Attorney General Mark Dreyfus said he would shelve the plans after a report from a parliamentary inquiry recommended that any data retention laws should include better plans for privacy protection while ensuring oversight.
But Pirate Party Australia, whose Senate candidates in four states will be competing in a federal election for the first time, told SBS it thought the issue was likely to return should the Coalition's George Brandis be installed as Attorney General after September 14.
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"We expect them to bring it back up...Brandis has not been particularly strong in his opposition", Deputy President Simon Frew said.
The comments were echoed by Greens Senator Scott Ludlam who told Fairfax media that Labor's putting on hold of the plans was a 'temporary win.'
The report recommended that data should be stored for two years maximum and not include the browsing histories of users. But the decision on whether to force ISPs to store it at all was left to government.
Federal Attorney General Mark Dreyfus said on Monday that the government would "await further advice from the departments and relevant agencies and comprehensive consultation", AFR reported.
After most of those who made submissions to the inquiry did not back the proposals, Mr Frew said the government was not keen on pursuing an unpopular policy before the election.
"The current government have enough problems rather than adding to it with proposals such as these...we suspect there's vague bipartisan support", Mr Frew said.
"We expect we'll have to fight this again sometime in the future".
Senator Brandis has previously said the public would accept 'a level' of mandatory data retention.
"But my political judgment is that there is no way the public wouldn't react very strongly against a proposal unless they were absolutely guaranteed that their internet browsing history or use would not be subject of the mandatory retention regime."
SBS is awaiting further comment from Senator Brandis' office.
Industry voices welcomed the inquiry's recommendations on Friday.
"The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security (PJCIS) has struck a reasonable balance in its examination of what is a highly complex set of issues", Communications Alliance CEO John Stanton said.
"We welcome the fact that the Committee has focused on the protection of consumers' privacy, the need for government transparency and the necessity to develop proposals in consultation with industry and to take account of the cost implications for industry flowing from potential security-related reforms".
