The safeguards on Australia's surveillance powers are theatre: sunsets that get moved instead of triggered, omnibus bills that bury the extensions, and a ledger of use that nobody reads. The powers grow; the reckonings never arrive.
This article previously said the existing A$49.5 million code penalty attaches to breach of a direction to comply, not to the code breach itself. The A$49.5 million figure was the maximum for the under-16 obligation for conduct before 1 July 2026, and for that obligation the chain is wrong: the penalty in section 63D of the Online Safety Act attaches directly to a platform's failure to take…
This article previously said the Monitor called the government's 'approach' disappointing. The Monitor's word 'disappointing' was about how long electronic surveillance reform is taking.
This article previously gave the national s178 figure as 364,868. The TIA Act Annual Report 2024-25 gives 364,868 as the total authorisations for existing telecommunications data made by 21 agencies; of those, 357,864 were made to enforce the criminal law under s178, and NSW Police's 126,775 is drawn from that s178 figure.
This article previously gave this figure as 364,868. The TIA Act Annual Report 2024-25 gives 364,868 as the total authorisations for existing telecommunications data made by 21 agencies; of those, 357,864 were made to enforce the criminal law under s178.