George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

Before I turn to that, Senator Leyonhjelm, let me add some information to my answer to your last question. I should point out to you that this issue of the definition of a journalist is also dealt with in the explanatory memorandum. I refer you to paragraph 443. It basically says what I just told you, but it sets it out a little more fully.

The selection of two years as the retention period was the conclusion to which the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security unanimously came. Of course, one must always make a judgement. The purpose for which this metadata is being retained is to facilitate and assist investigations. It is entirely possible that the retention of metadata for a longer period than two years might assist some investigations which would not be helped if the metadata is destroyed after two years. On the other hand, of course, there will be many investigations in which the relevant acts or events which might be disclosed by the metadata will have occurred much less than two years after the investigator seeks access to them. There is a degree of an arbitrary time limit here. All I can say to you is that two years was the period chosen by the PJCIS, on the advice of the agencies, as a reasonable period within which their investigative needs were—in most, though not necessarily all, cases—likely to be met.

In relation to the metadata-retention practices of ISPs, there is no common standard. It is one of the problems here—there is no common standard. I do not say they all retain metadata for precisely two years; some retain it for less; some retain it for longer, as a matter of fact. After long discussion, which I well remember, in particular with the intelligence agencies, it seemed in all the circumstances to be the right period to reconcile the need not to hold onto this material indefinitely with the need for it to be retained sufficiently long to be serviceable and useful to an investigation.