Background and instructions:
In October 2014, the Abbott government introduced a Bill into the federal Parliament which later established a mandatory metadata retention regime. An inquiry into the Bill was undertaken by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security (PJCIS).
The retention of metadata remains a controversial topic, as it pits the needs of police and intelligence agencies to investigate national security threats and other serious crimes against significant privacy concerns.
The questions below direct you to understand the metadata laws, the process of enacting these laws in Parliament, and the impact of the legislation on individual privacy. You should rely on the core knowledge of law and government provided in this course, as well as your own research. In addition to the course materials, you can rely on media articles, submissions to the PJCIS and the PJCIS report, academic sources, and any other relevant materials. As a rule of thumb, you should aim for around 8-10 sources. When referencing your sources you should follow the standard APA format (6th ed), and include a bibliography.
The word limit for the report is 2000 words. The bibliography will not be included in the word limit. You should copy out each of the questions below into a new word document and address each separately. The marks available for each question are specified next to each – please check these carefully to judge how many words to allocate to each question. The questions total 40 marks (40% of the course).
Questions
1.) What was the name of the Bill, and what existing legislation did it amend?
(2 marks)
2.) When did the Bill pass the House of Representatives and the Senate? When did it receive royal assent?
(2 marks)
3.) Which Minister was responsible for introducing the Bill in the House of Representatives (name and ministerial portfolio)? What is his current position in government?
(3 marks)
4.) What reasons did the government give for introducing the Bill?
(4 marks)
5.) What are the major features of Australia’s metadata laws, as enacted?
(4 marks)
6.) What kinds of individuals and organisations wrote submissions to the PJCIS inquiry? What concerns did they raise?
(5 marks)
7.) How significant a risk do the metadata laws pose to individual privacy? What protections for individual privacy exist in Australia?
(5 marks)
8.) What risks do the metadata laws pose to whistleblowers and journalists? How did the federal government address these risks?
(5 marks)
9.) What have been some of the challenges and difficulties with implementing the metadata laws in practice?
(5 marks)
10.) Do you think the federal government struck the right balance between the need to investigate serious crimes and the need to protect individual privacy?
(5 marks)
