Home affairs department agrees they should be able to get help to read intercepted messages

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Labor has endorsed a push to extend the encryption legislation’s powers to state anti-corruption bodies after a last-minute carve-out to exclude them put the Morrison government at odds with the home affairs department.

The department has argued it is “inconsistent” for bodies such as the New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption to have powers to intercept electronic messages but prevent them from obtaining technical assistance to read them.

The shadow attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, told Guardian Australia that Labor had offered to extend the industry assistance powers provided the commonwealth ombudsman had oversight.

Those powers allow law enforcement agencies to order or request technology companies to build capabilities or help crack encryption or access suspects’ devices and data.

Labor and Coalition in last-minute blowup over encryption deal Read more

“Unfortunately, due to the government’s insistence on an urgent timetable, this issue was not adequately addressed by the intelligence committee’s rushed report or by the government’s hastily prepared amendments,” Dreyfus said.

“As a matter of principle, Labor believes that state and territory anti-corruption bodies should have the same investigatory powers as the agencies that they are often tasked with investigating.

“Labor expects that the extension of these powers to state and territory anti-corruption bodies will be examined by the intelligence committee as it continues its inquiries.”

Labor passed the telecommunications (access and assistance) bill in the last sitting of parliament in 2018, after the Morrison government said law enforcement agencies urgently needed its new powers and promised to consider Labor amendments in 2019.

Labor’s cooperation came after a last-minute blow-up, with the government and opposition at odds over whose amendments better reflected a bipartisan parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security report.

Although extending the bill’s powers to anti-corruption bodies is not one of the Labor amendments before the committee, it was supported by the home affairs department and the NSW Law Enforcement Conduct Commission.

The commission – which oversees misconduct by law enforcement agencies – submitted that it relies on telecommunications interception warrants but 93% of communications it intercepts are encrypted.

It said the committee had not explained the rationale for carving out state and territory anti-corruption bodies.

It warned the carve-out left it unable to use new powers to investigate serious crimes by police who are “well versed in investigative methods”.

“The exclusion of [the commission] … may well encourage corrupt police to use encrypted communications with confidence and encourage police corruption more broadly.”