Submission: Review of Telecommunications and Other Legislation Amendment (Assistance and Access) Act 2018
Allens Hub director Lyria Bennett Moses and Hub member Genna Churches filed a supplementary submission to the Independent National Security Legislation Monitor’s Review of Telecommunications and Other Legislation Amendment (Assistance and Access) Act 2018 (‘TOLA Act’) on 10 March 2020. The supplementary submission covered questions on notice taken during oral evidence given by Genna Churches at the hearings in Canberra on 20-21 February 2020. Evidence and the submission covered issues such as clarity sounding the requirement for a warrant, reporting measures and independence of technical experts should the IPCO model of authorisation become a recommendation of the Review.
The TOLA Act, controversially passed on the last sitting day of Parliament into 2018 may have wide spread ramifications for broader network security and encryption protocols. The Allens Hub original submission, prepared by Allens Hub director Lyria Bennett Moses, together with Hub member Genna Churches and Hub research assistant, Nicholas Parker. The Allens Hub have been invited to provide oral evidence at the INSLM hearings in Canberra during February 2020. The submission touched on a number of issues, including the need for clarity, transparency and accountability, particularly surrounding the boundaries of national security and law enforcement agencies power to collect, access, analyse and act on data whilst maintaining public trust. The need for transparency and accountability feeds into a discussion on the range of interpretations which could be derived from elements of the Act and that the Act itself amended the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 (Cth) and the Telecommunications Act 1997 (Cth) which already contained known issues of duplication, confusion and conflict. The submission closes by considering the need for public justification of such powers and if the powers are required, the appropriate form and standard of reporting on the use of those powers.