Nick Xenophon (SA, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. Does the minister acknowledge that you do not actually need a specific authorisation for metadata collection, that you do not need a warrant? And given that United States Signals Intelligence Directive 18 defines interception as occurring not when phone calls, emails and electronic data are stored but when a human actually accesses that information, is it the case that Australia's Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act and the Surveillance Devices Act provide no oversight at all of any mass surveillance of Australians, including surveillance via the NBN?