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The Gillard Government is facing a major rewrite of portions of its Cybercrime Legislation Amendment Bill, after a parliamentary committee found flaws in the proposed legislation and recommended 18 major changes.
Attorney-General Robert McClelland introduced the bill in June, saying the new laws would allow Australia to join the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime. The bill was passed by the lower house in June but ran into trouble in the Senate which voted to refer it to a committee.
The committee – on which Greens Senator Scott Ludlam was a prominent member – yesterday came up with 18 recommendations for changes to the Government bill, including scrapping – or at least deeply modifying – the requirements for keeping records of all Internet transmissions.
Scott Ludlam told Australian IT the Government would have to fix “serious flaws” in the bill if it wanted it passed. With the Greens holding the balance of power in the Senate, there seems little doubt the Government will have to go along, or at least negotiate, with the Greens.
McClelland was putting on a brave face yesterday, putting out a statement in which he “welcomed” the report, though many observers noted his gritted teeth. “The Government will consider the recommendations made by the committee,” he pledged.
Ludlam said the proposed legislation “goes well beyond the already controversial European convention on which it is based”. “The treaty doesn’t require the ongoing collection and retention of communications, but the Australian bill does,” he told Australian IT.
Death penalty proviso
ISPs claim the bill would require them to keep records of every Web page an internet user had visited, along with any information that could identify the source, destination, date, type, time and duration of communications.
Another of the committee’s recommendations would insist that the Attorney-General must refuse assistance to a foreign country if the offence carries the death penalty in that country, unless he or she believes special circumstances apply.
The report is at www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/jscc/cybercrime_bill.
