The three-year gap between the introduction of the Bill into Parliament and assent indicates the extent of the debates that occurred over the proposed extension of search and surveillance powers held by the State.
Previously, both police and non-police powers were found in a myriad of statutes[2] and amendments that had developed in a "piecemeal fashion over a long period of time".
[3] Issues with the previous state of the law are exemplified in the case of Hamed & Ors v R,[4] where uncertainty arose from the lack of statutory controls on police power in the area of visual surveillance.
If detention is involved, law enforcement bodies must continue to "respect human rights norms directed at personal integrity".
The importance of this is well summarized by the United Nations Human Rights Committee in its General Comment on article 17 of the ICCPR: "The term 'unlawful' means that no interference can take place except in cases envisaged by the law.
[25] This type of warrant is required when the search proposed by the enforcement agency may result in an invasion of a person's reasonable expectation of privacy.
[26] It is up to the agency to make the decision as to whether there might be an intrusion of a person's reasonable expectation of privacy, and the Commission considered that this may conflict with human rights values.
[29] The Commission wanted the definition of information limited to "assessments of complex documents for fraud purposes" to try and protect people from unjust self-incrimination.
[34] The Commission also recommended that a provision be added to the legislation which requires all agencies to act only in accordance with human rights values when exercising their search and surveillance powers.
[1] This inclusion in the final piece of legislation demonstrates the importance of human rights values "in the context of search and surveillance powers".
[5] Simon Collier wrote in a 2012 article that the Act "is a marked improvement on the previous law in the area of surveillance" and was necessary to properly safeguard rights.