Committee to hear from government and civil society groups on new identify and data disrupt warrants

THE Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security (PJCIS) will hold a public hearing this week for its Review of the Surveillance Legislation Amendment (Identify and Disrupt) Bill 2020.

The Bill review was requested by the Minister for Home Affairs in a letter to the Committee.

Committee chair Senator James Paterson said, "The committee will consider three new powers proposed in the Bill for the AFP and the ACIC. They are:

• Data disruption warrants to enable the AFP and the ACIC to disrupt data by modifying, adding, copying or deleting in order to frustrate the commission of serious offences online;
• Network activity warrants to allow agencies to collect intelligence on serious criminal activity being conducted by criminal networks; and
• Account takeover warrants to provide the AFP and the ACIC with the ability to take control of a person’s online account for the purposes of gathering evidence to further a criminal investigation.’

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, teleconference and video conference facilities may be used to connect witnesses to committee members. The hearings will be broadcast live at aph.gov.au/live.

Public hearing details

Wednesday, 10 March 2021
10am–5pm (AEDT)
Committee Room 2R1, Parliament House, Canberra

A program for the hearing can be found on the committee’s website.

Further information on the inquiry can be obtained from the Committee’s website.