The Senate has voted the bill, which compels technology companies to grant police and security agencies access to encrypted messages.
Background: The Australian government had been working on a law to ensure public authorities have access to encrypted communications for the purpose of tackling crime. This resulted in a bill presented in August 2018.
What’s new? At incredible pace, the law has now been voted by both chambers of the Parliament. On 6 December, the Senate voted it without any amendments. A parliamentary committee examining the legislation had only released its report late on 5 December 2018. The Labor Party, currently in opposition, initially proposed 173 amendments to the bill, but dropped them on 6 December 2018 to ensure a fast approval of the law.
Why does it matter? Since the introduction of the bill, stakeholders across the board voiced serious concerns. Tech companies and cybersecurity experts warned that creating a backdoor to end-to-end encryption is not possible without weakening the whole system. As a result, despite the safeguards in the text, the law could affect security for everyone. In practice, while the law does not ban end-to-end encryption (which is forbidden in Turkey, Russia, and China), it could have the same practical effect.
Next steps: The provisions will now become law. The Labor party promised to discuss amendments early next year, although critics have noted it will be harder to do so now that the law has been adopted.
