ASIC granted access to planners’ data
Financial services regulators will be among the Federal agencies authorised to access telecommunications data under an amendment to the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Amendment (Data Retention) Bill 2014.
Speaking in the House of Representatives yesterday, Shadow Attorney-General, Mark Dreyfus, backed a number of amendments to the Bill, including one authorising the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) to access telecommunications data as part of investigations into white-collar crime.
Dreyfus said the amendments, put forward by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, were "directed at better safeguarding the rights and privacy of Australians".
"Significant recommendations that were made...include: specifying the dataset required to be retained in the bill itself, rather than in regulations; limiting access to telecommunications data to enforcement agencies specifically listed in the bill; authorising ASIC and the ACCC to have access to telecommunications data to assist those agencies in the investigation and prosecution of white-collar crime," he said.
"I would say in summary that these amendments are critically important to making this bill what it should be — a bill that will help our law enforcement and security agencies to make Australians safer but without compromising our rights and freedoms that we, as citizens of democracy living under the rule of law, must also defend."
The amendments were also backed by the Minister for Communications, Malcolm Turnbull.
AUTHOR
Nicholas O'Donoghue
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