Labor frontbencher Ed Husic has warned the government to "tread carefully" on controversial legislation that seeks to give intelligence and law enforcement agencies greater access to Australians' encrypted data.

Echoing concerns voiced by industry and privacy advocates, Mr Husic accused the government of rushing through the Assistance and Access Bill. He said the process needed to be cautious and transparent because of the complexity of the changes, which will introduce obligations for companies to hand over user information.

"This has been an area that other governments have taken the time to tread carefully through," Mr Husic, Labor's digital economy spokesman, told Fairfax Media. "And given the number of digital projects the Coalition’s stuffed up, you’d think they would be cautious about anything to do with tech."

He said the government was "rushing it and not being upfront about the concerns raised through the consultation process", noting thousands of submissions had not been made public.