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The bill, staunchly opposed by the tech giants which fear
Australia could be an example as other nations explore similar
rules, is set to become law before the end of the year.
"Let's just make Australians safe over Christmas," opposition
Labor party leader Bill Shorten told reporters outside
parliament in the capital of Canberra.
The bill, passed by the lower house of parliament earlier on
Thursday, was to be debated in the upper Senate, where Labor
said it intended to suggest new amendments, before going back to
the lower house.
In an eleventh-hour twist, Labor said that despite its
reservations, it would pass the bill in the Senate, on the
proviso that the coalition agreed to its amendments next year.
"We will pass the legislation, inadequate as it is, so we can
give our security agencies some of the tools they say they
need," Shorten said.
The bill provides for fines of up to A$10 million ($7.3 million)
for institutions and prison terms for individuals for failing to
hand over data linked to suspected illegal activities.
When it becomes law, Australia will be one of the first nations
to impose broad access requirements on technology firms, after
many years of lobbying by intelligence and law enforcement
agencies in many countries, particularly the so-called Five Eyes
nations.
The Five Eyes intelligence network, comprised of the United
States, Canada, Britain, Australia and New Zealand, have each
warned that national security was at risk because authorities
were unable to monitor the communications of suspects.
Australia's government has said the laws are needed to counter
militant attacks and organized crime and that security agencies
would need to seek warrants to access personal data.
Technology companies have opposed efforts to create what they
see as a back door to users' data, a stand-off that was
propelled into the public arena by Apple's refusal to unlock an
iPhone used by an attacker in a 2015 shooting in California.
The companies say creating tools for law enforcement to break
encryption will inevitably undermine security for everyone.
Representatives of Google, Amazon and Apple were not immediately
available for comment after the Senate vote.
Earlier on Thursday, a Facebook <FB.O> spokesman directed
Reuters to a statement made by the Digital Industry Group Inc (DIGI),
of which Facebook as well as Apple, Google, Amazon and Twitter,
are members.
"This legislation is out of step with surveillance and privacy
legislation in Europe and other countries that have strong
national security concerns," the DIGI statement said.
"Several critical issues remain unaddressed in this legislation,
most significantly the prospect of introducing systemic
weaknesses that could put Australians' data security at risk,"
it said.
(Reporting by Tom Westbrook and Karishma Luthria. Additional
reporting by Melanie Burton in MELBOURNE; Editing by Paul Tait
and Darren Schuettler)
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