The Surveillance Rort
- Opened on fileThe sunset that won't set
The safeguards on Australia's surveillance powers are theatre: sunsets that get moved instead of triggered, omnibus bills that bury the extensions, and a ledger of use that nobody reads. The powers grow; the reckonings never arrive.
Fig. 02 / What happened
Fig. 03 / Who the record names
How we know
The exhibits sit beside the title above, each tied to the article that documented it. How evidence and sources are graded: evidence grade, source tiers.
What else is connected
Named in this case and in others. A count of where the record names them, not a finding about what they did.
From the desk
- Article updatedThe order that replaces the warrant · The Surveillance Rort
The 7 October note above gave the ministerial release as of late September 2026 and the date of passage as 24 or 25 September. The release was published on 25 September 2026 and says the bill passed Parliament "last night", which points to 24 September. The bill page, read on 8 October 2026, records the Legislative Assembly agreeing to the Legislative Council's amendments on 24 September 2026 but…
- Correction publishedThe sunset that won't set · The Surveillance Rort
The 7 October note above said the 2023 date came from the government's response to the review in December 2020, citing. The iTnews report carries the review's own drafting and implementation estimate, not a government promise of two years of consultation or a 2023 bill; the 2023 date is in the Monitor's report, and the note now says so. Reference now also links the submission text, which carries…
- Correction publishedThe internet asks for ID · The Surveillance Rort
This section said the fine under the ban had 'never been issued', and the subtitle said enforcement 'has issued zero fines'. Both were stated as absolutes. They now give what was checked: this outlet's search of eSafety's enforcement releases and compliance updates found no fine under the minimum-age law to 25 September 2026, and a repeat search on 7 October 2026 found none. eSafety's own pages…
- Correction publishedThe order that replaces the warrant · The Surveillance Rort
This article was published on 14 August 2026, when the bill was before the parliament. It has since moved: a NSW Government ministerial release of late September 2026 announces that the Crimes and Other Legislation Amendment (Further Organised Crime Reforms) Bill 2026 has passed the NSW Parliament, including the Digital Evidence Access Orders, police access to unredacted toll-road camera images…
- Correction publishedThe sunset that won't set · The Surveillance Rort
This section said the reform bill was originally due in 2023 on the Richardson review's own timeline. The 2023 date was the government's: in December 2020 the government announced an overhaul of electronic surveillance laws after the review, and the reform project was initially conceived as a two-year project, with a bill to be finalised in 2023. The review itself said a new Act would take two to…
- Correction publishedThe internet asks for ID · The Surveillance Rort
The paragraph above said typical vendors in the Age Assurance Technology Trial averaged 2.4-2.7 years of error. The trial's final report gives no average for a "typical vendor", so that framing was ours and it was wrong. What the report does print, in Part D, are pooled error figures by age across the providers tested, and near the age thresholds they run from about 2.4 to 3.0 years. For the 13+…
- Correction publishedThe internet asks for ID · The Surveillance Rort
This article previously said the existing A$49.5 million code penalty attaches to breach of a direction to comply, not to the code breach itself. The A$49.5 million figure was the maximum for the under-16 obligation for conduct before 1 July 2026, and for that obligation the chain is wrong: the penalty in section 63D of the Online Safety Act attaches directly to a platform's failure to take…
- Correction publishedThe sunset that won't set · The Surveillance Rort
This article previously said the Monitor called the government's 'approach' disappointing. The Monitor's word 'disappointing' was about how long electronic surveillance reform is taking.
- Correction publishedThe order that replaces the warrant · The Surveillance Rort
This article previously gave the national s178 figure as 364,868. The TIA Act Annual Report 2024-25 gives 364,868 as the total authorisations for existing telecommunications data made by 21 agencies; of those, 357,864 were made to enforce the criminal law under s178, and NSW Police's 126,775 is drawn from that s178 figure.
- Correction publishedThe sunset that won't set · The Surveillance Rort
This article previously gave this figure as 364,868. The TIA Act Annual Report 2024-25 gives 364,868 as the total authorisations for existing telecommunications data made by 21 agencies; of those, 357,864 were made to enforce the criminal law under s178.