Cybercrime Legislation Amendment Bill 2011

The majority disagreed that Australian Greens amendments (1) to (10) on sheet 7232 be agreed to. This means these amendments will not be part of the bill (which was later passed into law).

The amendments sought to limit the powers granted by this bill to investigations of serious crime, i.e. "in relation to an offence that is punishable by imprisonment for at least 3 years".

The bill:

<summary>Facilitates Australia’s accession to the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime by amending the: <i>Telecommunications Act 1997</i> and <i>Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979</i> to require carriers and carriage service providers to preserve stored communications when requested by certain domestic agencies or when requested by the Australian Federal Police on behalf of certain foreign countries; <i>Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Act 1987</i> and <i>Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979</i> to: ensure that a foreign country can secure access to stored computer data, including preserved data; and allow a stored communication warrant to be obtained for foreign law enforcement purposes; <i>Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Act 1987</i>, <i>Telecommunications Act 1997</i> and <i>Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979</i> to: enable existing telecommunications data to be provided to a foreign law enforcement agency on a police to police basis; and enable the collection of prospective telecommunications data for foreign law enforcement purposes in certain circumstances; <i>Telecommunications Act 1997</i> to provide that carriers and carriage service providers can recover costs incurred when assisting foreign law enforcement agencies; <i>Criminal Code Act 1995</i> to provide that computer offences are consistent with the convention; and <i>Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979</i> to: create confidentiality requirements in relation to authorisations to disclose telecommunications data; and expand offence provisions.</summary>