Senate calls on Attorney-General to table overdue report into warrantless metadata access

The Senate has called on Attorney-General George Brandis to table an overdue report into authorities warrantless access to metadata by Thursday.

"This report contains critical information on law enforcement access to Australians' telecommunications data which is directly relevant to the Parliament's consideration of the government's data retention bill. It is an indictment on the Government that it is yet to be tabled," Senator Scott Ludlam, Australian Greens communications spokesperson said today.

"Under the Act Attorney-General George Brandis is required to prepare a report in relation to the act at the end of each financial year. For the past three years, this report has been tabled in Parliament during November or December, but the most recent report is nowhere to be seen.

"Withholding the report reduces the ability of the Parliament to properly assess the Government's data retention regime.

"This invasive regime will see metadata for every person held for two years. It is crucial to the assessment of this legislation to know who is accessing this data and for what purposes.

"This is yet another example of the Government's complete failure to follow due process, and is another signal that the Parliament is not ready to vote on this Bill.

"The Senate has demanded the Attorney-General to table this report on Thursday 19th March, and I call on Senator Brandis to respect the will of the Chamber," Senator Ludlam concluded.