Under the 1979 Act, the Australian Security and Intelligence Organization (ASIO) and ‘enforcement agencies’ can access telecommunications data by issuing an internal, or intra-organization, authorization.

[5] Section 5 of the Act defines an enforcement agency to include the Australian Federal Police (AFP), the police force of a State or Territory, the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service, crime commissions, anti-corruption bodies and the CrimTrac Agency.

ASIO must also comply with guidelines issued under Section 8A of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Act 1979.

These guidelines demand that the initiation and continuation of investigations shall only be authorized by the Director General, or an officer at or above Executive Level 2 authorised by the Director-General for that purpose; and that any means used for obtaining information must be proportionate to the gravity of the threat posed and the probability of its occurrence.

[6] On 12 December 2013, the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee began a Comprehensive revision of the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 (the Act), with regard to the recommendations of the Australian Law Reform Commission For Your Information: Australian Privacy Law and Practice report, dated May 2008, particularly recommendation 71.2; and recommendations relating to the Act from the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security Inquiry into the potential reforms of Australia’s National Security Legislation report, dated May 2013.