Local councils and the RSPCA should be barred from accessing metadata to catch illegal dumpers or crack down on animal cruelty, a parliamentary inquiry has found.
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In a review of the Coalition government's mandatory data retention scheme, the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security called on government to close a "loophole" that had allowed non-criminal agencies to request the information.
Under the scheme, telcos are required to retain metadata for two years in a bid to assist law enforcement with criminal or national security investigations.
During the second reading speech in 2015, then-Communications Minister Mitch Fifield said the scheme would be used to catch terrorists, murderers and predators.
"In a current major child exploitation investigation, the AFP has been unable to identify 156 out of 463 potential suspects, because certain internet service providers do not retain the necessary IP address allocation records to enable the resolution of the IP address to the particular account number the person in question was using. These records are critical to link criminal activity online back to a real world suspect," Senator Fifield said at the time.
However more than 80 non-criminal law enforcement agencies have sought data through the scheme.
This has included local councils, who have requested data to manage traffic offences, or stop the unlawful removal of trees, illegal rubbish dumping and billposters.
The RSPCA, the Environment Protection Authority and state coroners have also used the scheme.
The Communications Alliance - the peak body for Australian telcos - said groups representing veterinarians, the fishing industry and the mining industry have also sought to use the scheme.
The Law Council said it was also possible to use the scheme as it currently stood to crack down on low-level civil offences, such as digital piracy.
The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner told the inquiry it was concerned that the scheme could be used to detect less serious offences.
Labor's attorney-general spokesman Mark Dreyfus said the way the laws had been used was "completely at odds" with the way in which the mandatory data retention scheme was intended to operate.
"It should be repealed urgently," Mr Dreyfus said.
"Make no mistake: when an agency obtains a person's telecommunications data without consent, that is a significant invasion of that person's privacy.
"The absence of a warrant requirement therefore makes it especially important that the powers to access telecommunications data be subject to rigorous oversight and that they only be exercised in appropriate circumstances by properly qualified individuals."
The committee recommended the scheme must be amended so only agencies like ASIO could draw on the data.
"The evidence to this inquiry demonstrates there is a loophole here in relation to the agencies that should be allowed access to a person's telecommunications data," their report said.
"The committee is concerned to build on and retain confidence in the data retention regime and concludes that the number and type of agencies that can access a person's telecommunications data ... may undermine the social licence for ASIO and law enforcement agencies to access the information."
