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20-03-2015 07:11 PM - edited 20-03-2015 07:12 PM
Daily Mail UK
18 March
Does Tony Abbott know what metadata is? PM 'had no problem' with police accessing his files when he was a journalist... but that was BEFORE the Internet
It's a pivotal policy for the Federal Government but questions are being asked of the Prime Minister's understanding, or lack thereof, around metadata after his bizarre claim that he never worried about police looking into his, when he was a journalist.
The problem with his attempt to allay fears of the modern day media is that metadata was hardly a player when Tony Abbott was reporting in the 1980s and early 90s, before the advent of the Internet.
'In the days when I was a journalist there were no metadata protections for journalists,' he stated to a gathering of reporters on Wednesday. But if you do the math, his argument simply does not stack up.
While metadata does include some traditional methods of investigation; including phone numbers and length and time of calls, the overhaul's main thrust is aimed at computer based functions, particularly the online and email world.
The Internet came to be, effectively, in 1992. Full text searches were not available for two years after that and email access came to being about the same time.
By then, Tony Abbott was well and truly ensconced as press secretary to Opposition Leader Dr John Hewson, his days as a writer for The Bulletin and The Australian all but over.
'I was perfectly comfortable as a journalist, I believe that Australian police and security agencies operate in a fair and reasonable and responsible manner,' the Prime Minister said.
'A contested warrant is more like a court case and if you had to have a court case to access metadata, well, the whole process would absolutely gum up,' he said.
In trying to explain the planned two-year retention, Mr Abbott has previously stated that he believed metadata to be the 'sites you're visiting'.
'It's not the content of the letter, it's what's on the envelope,' he had said when first flagging the legislation.
'It's not what you are doing on the internet, it's the site's you are visiting, it's not the content it's just where you have been.
'It's the person you are sending it to, the person sending it, it's the date and the place it's posted from.'
