Government and opposition locked in battle over laws to allow security and intelligence agencies access to encrypted telecommunications

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The powerful parliamentary security and intelligence committee was working towards a compromise position on the government’s controversial encryption legislation before Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton “blew the process up”, Penny Wong said.

The government and opposition are locked in an increasingly nasty battle over the proposed laws, which would allow security and intelligence agencies access to encrypted telecommunications through enforced “back doors”.

But the legislation, which the government has vowed to pass this week, has been criticised by stakeholders as being too broad and potentially placing at risk Australia’s national security.

Wong, speaking to the ABC, said the prime minister was “seeking to create a fight to distract attention from things like Julia Banks moving to the crossbench”.

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“The bill, as it is currently drafted, will make Australia less safe,” Wong said.

“Let me read one small part of a transcript from a company which is responsible for encryption, not only of some of Australia’s defence agencies and the AFP, but the US military.

“And it says about the bill, ‘it compromises the security of citizens, businesses and governments. It will be easier for cyber criminals, terrorists, to target systems and to be able to break into those systems.’ So this is evidence from this company.

“We have said we are willing to pass a bill by Thursday, which gives appropriate powers, these powers, to national security agencies with appropriate oversight to target criminals and people who are being investigated for child sex crimes.

“Scott Morrison doesn’t want that. He wants a fight, and I think compromising Australia’s national security for those reasons is really beneath the prime minister.”

The bipartisan security committee, which is examining the legislation, has found itself caught in the middle, and for the first time in a decade, will not agree on a position when its report on the legislation is handed down next week.

Labor committee MPs have already telegraphed they will be handing down a dissenting report after the committee was unable to find an agreeable position, after a compromise position of passing interim laws giving security agencies the powers they want, while the rest of the bill was examined, was rejected by the government.

The government has used Labor’s reticence to accuse the opposition of being soft on terrorism. In the weeks leading up to the split, Dutton had put increasing pressure to speed up the committee deliberations, so the government could pass the bill as soon as possible.

On Sunday, Mathias Cormann went further.

“The very important focus for us next week in the context of keeping our community safe is to ensure that terrorists, child sexual offenders and serious criminals cannot use encrypted communications through Whatsapp and the like to do their terrible business beyond the reach of intelligence and law enforcement agencies,” Cormann said.

“We are very disappointed that Labor is playing games with this. Based on all of the advice from our intelligence agencies it is very important for us to deal with this swiftly.

“We are entering a period that is particularly risky in relation to these sorts of matters.

“... To think that Labor would want terrorists to be able to communicate with each other beyond the reach of [law enforcement and intelligence agencies].”

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Wong said Labor would not be pressured into falling into line.

“I don’t think that you just say, when a prime minister behaves like a, frankly, a partisan player on national security, I don’t think that you just say, ‘sure, fine, we’ll dance as well’.

“We have to stand up for Australia’s national security.

“… I’ve been part of the committee for five years. We’ve dealt with 15 bills and we passed all of them and approved all of them with bipartisan support. This is the first time we’ve been in this position.

“We do not take it lightly. We believe that the prime minister is compromising Australia’s national security and he should stop playing politics with national security to try to get around the fact that he’s got a problem in his party room.

“In fact, the committee are working to a compromise position. The committee were working to a compromise position … let’s give the powers to the national security agencies for the purposes of terrorist investigations, terrorist investigations and child sex crimes. And guess what happened?

“Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton blew the process up. That’s what happened. And I think that the parliament and the country are served much less well by virtue of that politicking around national security.”

Senetas, the company Wong quoted from, sealed Labor’s opposition to rushing the bill’s consideration last Friday, when it testified that the bill compromised security, by making it easier for cybercriminals to “break into those systems, steal data or actually do something, control systems”.

The government plans on passing the bill this week, before parliament rises for the year.