Nearly all of the government agencies which last year snooped on citizens' phone and internet records without warrants have reapplied to access the data following the introduction of legislation which was meant to reduce the scope of access.

Sixty-one non-law enforcement federal and state agencies, including organisations such as Australia Post and Sydney's Bankstown City Council, have applied to access citizens' metadata for pursuing criminal activity or protecting public revenue.

Nearly all the agencies which accessed citizens' private information in the past have applied for continued access. Credit:Louise Kennerley

The telecommunications data may include information such as phone numbers and addresses of people who called each other, or email addresses and the times messages were sent.

By comparison, the latest official government report on metadata access, covering a period before new mandatory data retention legislation came into effect in October last year, showed 69 agencies accessed metadata. At that time they were automatically authorised to access this data, however following the legislation, non-law enforcement agencies must now apply directly to federal Attorney-General George Brandis for temporary approval to access metadata for up to 40 parliamentary sitting days.