Labor MPs, including shadow ministers, said Mr Shorten was placed in an invidious position by the Morrison government, which signalled it was willing to leave for the summer break with the laws sitting in the Senate unless Labor agreed to pass them in their original form. Loading Mr Shorten relented late on Thursday, saying the issue was "too important" to leave hanging over Christmas and he was "not prepared to go home when I know we can pass laws which make Australians safer". But Labor MPs will now push Mr Shorten to commit to changing the laws if he wins the election - particularly the addition of extra judicial oversight provisions that go beyond what Labor already supports. "The judicial oversight is tissue tough," said Labor MP and digital economy spokesman Ed Husic.

"No minister is going to contradict what the security agencies want. You need to have a judiciary, not a retired judge – someone who is familiar deeply with these issues who is a judge and can make a call. Loading "We don't have that. Long-term, that is going to be absolutely critical. It’s something that a number of us will be pushing for - that we improve the judicial oversight." Mr Husic said this week's outcome was "not a perfect endpoint" and "there will be people who wonder why we did what we did". But Labor was trying to balance security needs with "protecting the tech", he said. Labor's decision to back the encryption-busting bill - one of at least a dozen national security laws enacted by the Coalition government - has also angered lawyers, technology experts and the party faithful.

During caucus discussions prior to Thursday night's backdown, some MPs told colleagues they knew of party members who had already quit in disgust at Labor's position. Labor MP and regional communications spokesman Stephen Jones said he and a number of colleagues were "very concerned that we fix the problems in the laws as soon as Parliament returns". He said he had received "all the right assurances" from party leaders that this would occur. Other Labor MPs including Anthony Albanese, Peter Khalil, Pat Conroy and Terri Butler share concerns about the encryption laws. Leaving Parliament on Thursday, before the backdown, Mr Albanese dismissed the bill as "nonsense legislation".

Attorney-General Christian Porter said the Morrison government would "consider" amendments in line with the recommendations of a joint parliamentary committee that inquired into the bill. The issue came to a head on a dramatic final sitting day of 2018 when the Parliament ran out of time to deal with amendments to the bill proposed by Labor in the Senate. It followed a filibuster to prevent passage of a bill to help sick refugees on Nauru and Manus Island. The government faced a once-in-a-century defeat if the bill had progressed to the House of Representatives. Mr Shorten said the government "left the building and ran away from Parliament", but he was not prepared to leave the encryption laws hanging over the summer break in defiance of security agencies' advice. As such, Labor waved the bill through just after 7pm Thursday. "It is not a perfect solution and to all of those who are concerned about the economic impact of this legislation, we hear you," Mr Shorten told reporters in Canberra on Friday morning.