The federal government is moving quickly to accept all the recommendations of a parliamentary committee reviewing its controversial data retention bill.
Fairfax Media can reveal that Department of Communications secretary Drew Clarke consulted industry groups over the weekend to assist government discussions held Sunday, with a view to accepting the recommendations Monday.
A source close to the process said that the department wanted to make sure that there were no major outstanding issues with the recommendations, which the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Intelligence Security (PJCIS) detailed in its report to government released last Friday.
"It's polling industry to make sure there isn't any crucial f--k-ups among the PJCIS recommendations that would prevent them successfully accepting them," the source said.
It's understood that the government is to push the bill through the lower house as quickly as possible on Tuesday so it can be re-drafted in time to be sent back to the Senate when parliament resumes on March 16.
That could potentially give the government the ability to pass the bill with Labor's support by the end of the month.
The thrust of the bill is its requirement that telcos store so-called "metadata" for up to two years in order to ensure that law enforcement authorities have a pool of intelligence to investigate crimes.
Greens senator and vocal opponent of the data retention scheme Scott Ludlam said that he was concerned that the government was attempting to use the same methods it used to pass its controversial anti-terror bill last year.
At the time the Greens and independent senators pushed for amendments to soften the bill which streamlined ASIO's ability to gain access to warrants to access computers and introduced penalties of up to 10 years in prison for whistleblowers who disclosed classified information. In that case the government also accepted PJCIS recommendations shortly before whisking the bill through the Senate.
Senator Ludlam said he was concerned that the same tactic would weaken the ability to push for stronger amendments to the bill in the Senate.
"Effectively, what happened last year was that (accepting the recommendations) pre-empted chamber debate so I hope that it doesn't happen this time," Senator Ludlam said.
Senator Ludlam said that the PJCIS recommendations made only minor improvements to the bill and only served to give Labor, who supports the new laws, the ability to wash its hands of them.
"The deals get done behind the scenes in the crafting of that report. That gives the Labor party some cover to say that they improved the bill and that therefore it's not terrible," he said.
He added: "There were definitely some improvements recommended by the committee but it doesn't take much to improve an ambit claim".
The PJCIS made 39 recommendations to improve the bill. Notably the committee recommended making no change to the proposed two-year duration which telcos would be required to store metadata.
It also recommended that officer seeking access to requests be "satisfied on reasonable grounds that any interference with the privacy of any person or persons that may result from the disclosure or use is justifiable and proportionate".
However, Senator Ludlam remained unconvinced. He argued that the bill was merely "the start gun" for a passive collection regime open to scope creep. In other words, agencies would gradually expand the list of data included in the retention scheme.
"I think the bill should be rejected. It's a two-year mandatory data retention regime. It's pretty much exactly what has been cooking away in the background since 2008 that's been condemned by all sides of politics when it's suited them at different times and that's what it looks like the government is going to proceed with".
On Friday Communications Alliance chief executive John Stanton welcomed the recommended prohibition on the use of telecommunications metadata in civil law disputes.
"We are disappointed, however, that the Committee has not taken up our recommendation to reduce (to less than two years) the period for which non-telephony data must be retained.
"A two year retention period for these data adds to the increased costs that consumers will face and puts Australia out of line with the rest of the world."
Fairfax Media contacted the Attorney-General's department for comment but it declined.
