Jason Wood (La Trobe, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Community Safety, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Information Disclosure, National Interest and Other Measures) Bill 2022. This bill is all about saving lives and finding people in need who could potentially be putting themselves in harm's way or who, through other means, could have been put in harm's way. Each year there are 53,000 people who are reported missing. The great news is most of those people turn up safely within the first 24 hours. Sadly, there are times when they don't, and law enforcement and family members are trying to find them. I go back to my time in the police force many years ago, when someone would come to the counter and report a missing person. In those days we didn't have the luxury of mobile phones or the technology we're talking about today when it comes to triangulation. You'd basically say to the people, 'Let's see how they go in the first 24 hours,' and you'd go and speak to friends and relatives and everything else like that. But what would make a difference is when the person said, 'We found a suicide note,' or, 'The person has been suicidal in the past.' We had no option in that time apart from putting the car registration over the police radio so people could keep a look out for that person.

Another example and a tragic reminder is Jill Meagher, a person who was murdered on Friday 22 September, 2012. Jill, as you might recall, was a person who worked for the ABC. The murderer was a person by the name of Adrian Bayley. The body was discovered six days later near Gisborne South. At that time, I was back in the Victorian Police in the crime department, and the homicide squad did the most amazing work when they looked at everyone who was using mobile phones and followed those people who went out of the CBD, to track them. The way it works is every mobile phone pings through a mobile phone tower. They were able to use this when they realised Adrian Bayley was a suspect, using the triangulation to work out where he'd driven down towards Gisborne South.

This legislation will make great inroads into helping our emergency services workers to track down a person. That's why the coalition rolled out the advanced mobile location—or AML—technology, built into the operating systems of Apple and Android telephones to provide greater location accuracy to triple 0 services during an emergency call from a mobile phone.

The Telecommunications Act includes general prohibitions on carriers and carriage service providers disclosing certain information and documents, including telecommunications data. There are some important exemptions, including where disclosure of this information is reasonably necessary to prevent or lessen a serious and imminent threat to life or person.

The great news about this legislation is that it removes the word 'imminent'. You can imagine someone going into a police station or contacting triple 000 and finding that the only way law enforcement can get information is by proving there's an imminent threat to that person's safety. That's now been removed, so the decision can be based on the circumstances—for instance, 'We now have a missing person.' I assume the way it would work in police circles is that they would make an application to an inspector or above in the police force—this is my assumption from the way other acts work in the police force—they'd get the authority, and the telecommunications company would provide the information to be used to track that person down. For example, someone worried about another person's safety or a risk of them causing harm to themselves could establish that person's whereabouts in a certain location and notify the local police, who could look out for a certain vehicle or registration number in the hope of finding that person before something bad happened. Another situation might be a person out in the bush, bushwalking or going somewhere, and their family not knowing where they are. Again, they could use that information.

The bill clarifies that carriage service providers and carriage service intermediaries will not be liable for damages when such entities are acting in good faith in providing assistance as is reasonably necessary to emergency service organisations. So there are safeguards in the bill. It makes sure that we don't get a situation in which the service provider doesn't provide the information to police. It also makes some technical amendments, including clarification of the definition of 'telecommunications transmission tower'.

I should note that the opposition is concerned that one of the stated intentions of the bill, which is that the telecommunications companies would rely on law enforcement and emergency service organisations to determine whether the threat to life or health was serious, is not reflected in the way the bill is drafted. That's something the opposition would like to have clarified.

The bill responds to several recommendations, including from the Australian Law Reform Commission and a state coroner, about the current drafting of the act, which requires that a threat to life or health be imminent. This has hindered the disclosure of information about the location of a missing person, which could be determined by mobile phone triangulation. In cases where a person has been abducted, this would be vital information to make available to law enforcement agencies. When it comes to an investigation that is trying to locate a person, time is of the essence.

In October 2022, a New South Wales deputy state coroner wrote to the Minister for Communications recommending amendments to the act following the inquest into the disappearance of a Sydney person. The inquest heard evidence from police that the 'imminent' qualifier was a barrier to progressing a triangulation request. In her second reading speech on the bill, the minister also made reference to a 2020 New South Wales coronial inquest which found that accessing telecommunications data to locate a missing person presented an unrealistic barrier. However, in a departmental briefing with the shadow minister it was confirmed that the government had not received a written request for amendments to the act prior to 2022.

Could I now talk about the coalition's record when in government. The coalition's rollout of AML technology built into the operating systems of Apple and Android telephones was completed in 2021. AML has provided greater location accuracy to triple 0 during emergency calls from a mobile phone, with the objective of saving lives and improving outcomes for mobile users across Australia. The coalition also funded 1,200 mobile base stations, delivered record investment to support regional connectivity, and improved telecommunications infrastructure for disaster resilience. It rolled out 99 per cent of the NBN; established the world's first e-safety commissioner through the Online Safety Act, which extended important online safety protections to adults; and passed new regulations to combat telephone scams.

Overall, this is a great piece of legislation. It will be used by law enforcement agencies to make their job of finding missing people easier.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Just very briefly on that, and in response to the previous member: I fully concur and agree. You cannot place enough importance on the fact that mobile phone technology can be used to find missing persons—indeed, to find those people who may have been murdered and whose bodies may be buried in shallow graves somewhere in the regions. I can recall one such case: that of Stephanie Scott, a school teacher at Leeton High School, who was taken—abducted—and murdered. As to the perpetrator of this crime, the fact that we had mobile phone towers in the vicinity that were able to track the person's mobile phone meant we were able not only to identify that that person was involved but also, indeed, to find the body of Ms Scott. This was such a family tragedy, I can remember, for the entire Leeton community. Paul Mayton, the mayor at the time, led brilliantly.

But this mobile phone technology is so, so important. I commend the minister opposite for what she has done thus far, in visiting the Riverina electorate and the Central West.

I know we had a good record with rolling out mobile phone towers and installing 900 towers and funding more than 1,300 of them. But I would like to see the government continue this.

This bill, the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Information Disclosure, National Interest and Other Measures) Bill 2022—particularly the aspect of the bill I spoke of—is so important.