By David Wroe
Tony Abbott is stepping up the government's push for laws compelling phone and internet firms to keep customer metadata, calling such data "absolutely critical" to fighting child pornography online.
Ahead of a major statement next week about the need for further national security reforms, Mr Abbott will on Wednesday broaden the government's case over so-called data retention, which police say is vital to combating terrorism but also a wide range of crimes including child exploitation.
"We know that access to metadata has played a role in preventing and investigating terrorism offences. But it's also vital to investigating major crimes that destroy lives in this country," Mr Abbott will say, according to notes distributed by his office.
"And no crime is more abhorrent than crimes against children."
Tony AbbottCredit: AFP
Mr Abbott will make the remarks during a meeting with the child protection advocacy group Bravehearts, which strongly supports data retention laws. Police and spy agencies have long called for the reforms but privacy advocates say they would create a massive reservoir of personal information that is vulnerable to misuse.
Under the government's proposal, phone and internet firms would be forced to keep metadata such as the time and place of phone calls, and the origin and destination of emails, for at least two years. It does not include the content of communications.
Mr Abbott is expected on Monday to make a major statement on national security in which he proposes stripping dual nationals of their Australian citizenship if they are involved in terrorism.
Labor says it will work with the government but wants to see the detail of what is being proposed before giving its position.
Illustration: Ron Tandberg.
But on Tuesday Shadow Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus raised some concerns in principle, saying there was a danger Australia would send its problems offshore by cancelling citizenships.
"If we think that a person is still committed to terrorism and we deport them, we lose the capacity to monitor that person," he told ABC radio. "I think we've got to be careful that Australia doesn't become an exporter of terrorism. We've got a duty to the world here to deal with our own citizens."
Meanwhile the chairman of the NATO alliance's military committee, General Knud Bartels, expressed deep concern over the spread of the Islamic State group to Libya, where militants beheaded 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians – the first time the group had carried out its atrocities beyond Iraq and Syria.
"There is no doubt the situation in Libya … in the light of the recent horrifying events of the beheading of Egyptian citizens is very, very worrisome," he said in Canberra after talks with the Chief of the Defence Force, Mark Binskin, and other top Australian brass.
Both General Bartels and Air Chief Marshal Binskin backed a flexible approach to withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, which the country's new President Ashraf Ghani has called for and which Washington is reportedly considering.