Laws to force telcos to keep customer data for two years have been introduced to parliament, sparking a debate over internet price rises, privacy breaches and the powers of police and spy agencies.
Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull introduced draft laws to parliament on Thursday requiring telecommunications companies to keep metadata for two years.
Metadata includes the identity of a subscriber and the source, destination, date, time, duration and type of communication.
It excludes the content of a message, phone call or email and web-browsing history.
Police and intelligence agencies have been using metadata for five decades to investigate and solve crimes from terrorism to child abuse.
But many telcos have been deleting metadata from their systems because of the cost of retaining it, which has been estimated at up to $700 million a year across the industry.
"Unavailability of access to metadata would be a very significant degradation of Australia's counter-terrorism and general crime-fighting capabilities," Attorney-General George Brandis said.
ASIO director-general Duncan Lewis said his agency had used metadata to thwart four mass-casualty terrorism attack plans in recent years, one of which resulted in 18 convictions.
"The seriousness of the crimes that are addressed by us through the access to metadata is critical," he said.
The laws were expected to be introduced in 2015 after further consultation but were instead rushed into parliament on Thursday after a meeting of the Liberal and National parties. The Labor caucus has not considered the bill.
Mr Turnbull said the government would make a "substantial contribution" to cover telco costs, but was still considering what that would be.
"We understand that we're asking these companies to do things that they don't have a business need to do and there is an expense," he said.
The Greens said any cost of compliance would amount to a "surveillance tax".
Labor leader Bill Shorten said he understood why security agencies wanted the metadata retained, but it must be balanced against privacy concerns.
"We'll hear the evidence and, calmly and rationally, we'll make sure we get the balance right," Mr Shorten said.
Telcos will have two years to meet the requirements of the new scheme.
The Ombudsman, the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security and the Privacy Commissioner will have oversight roles.
A draft of the bill will be referred to the parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security for review before it is passed.
Meanwhile, Senator Brandis has responded to an outcry over anti-terrorism laws that media organisations feared could put journalists in jail for reporting on national security.
The attorney-general has issued a direction to the Commonwealth prosecutor ensuring no prosecution of a journalist under the laws could go ahead without his consent.
The opposition has been critical of the laws, which could put journalists in jail for up to 10 years.
Parliament on Thursday passed laws to ban travel to terrorist hot spots without a valid excuse and make it illegal to "promote" or "encourage" terrorism.
There are at least 60 Australians involved with Islamic State extremists in Iraq and Syria.
Labor defended its bipartisan support for the laws and claimed credit for extra oversight of new powers.
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