Senator ELLISON (Minister for Justice and Customs) (3:41 PM) —The government opposes schedule 1 in the following terms:

This amendment puts into effect the recommendation made by the Senate Legal and Constitutional Legislation Committee. In fact, all of the government amendments do that. It is rather strange, though, that in moving this amendment I will then vote against it. As I understand it, the motion is that items 5 to 9 stand as printed. We will oppose that so that it will give effect to what the Senate committee has recommended. That is what we will be doing in relation to this amendment.

The remaining amendments all go to the same recommendation. Basically, the situation is that, in relation to the issue of viewing and reading emails and the like, the Australian Federal Police raised some concerns about what they could and could not do. There have been discussions between the department and the Australian Federal Police. Advice was obtained and has been put to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Legislation Committee, but there are some operational aspects. It is not a question of their disagreeing with each other; it is a question of improving the situation so that operational matters can be accommodated. I think that the Senate committee's recommendation is an appropriate one.

I will expand on my previous comments. In subsequent government amendments I will keep my comments very brief and I will make my overall submission at this stage. We are entering an age when information technology is used frequently and by more and more people. The question arises when you send an email as to whether that email can be treated as a letter or a telephone call. Of course, as an electronic transfer comes under the telecommunications power of the Commonwealth, one would think it is obviously a telecommunications matter.

Telephone intercepts have operated on the basis of a telephone call. We are now entering the stage where emails can be stored and where they can be rejected by filters. The question of whether you should be able to access those emails, how you do it and whether you can access emails on your own system is one of corporate governance which was raised during the hearing. Of course, there is a plausible argument made by the private sector and organisations such as the Australian Federal Police that they need to keep certain standards and, in doing that, they need to be able to review emails that are being received by members of their organisation—and do so without having to obtain a warrant.

In the general circumstances of a search warrant you may have a situation where the warrant allows the police to have access to a computer. If in the course of examining and operating a computer they come across an email which could be of probative value in relation to prosecution, at present they would be unable to access that email without having obtained another warrant—an intercept warrant, on the basis of a telephone intercept. I think there are some issues there which we need to address. We will be doing that over the break, and we hope to return to parliament at the budget sittings with amendments which will deal with these and other issues. I think it is sensible that we do not hold up this bill—a very important bill—by including these provisions. That is what we are seeking to do today. I thank the opposition for its cooperation on this matter.