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Australia passes world-first legislation to snoop on Whatsapp

The opposition have accused Australia's government of rushing through draconian measures - © 2016 Bloomberg Finance LP
The opposition have accused Australia's government of rushing through draconian measures - © 2016 Bloomberg Finance LP

Australia has passed unprecedented legislation that will allow its spies to snoop on encrypted messages on services like Whatsapp, in a world-first that has alarmed privacy advocates and the tech industry.

Under the legislation, police and intelligence agencies can force technology firms - including overseas communication giants like Facebook - to remove encrypted protection for people under investigation.

Canberra says the laws are needed to intercept communications between serious criminals, like terrorists and paedophiles.

The move makes Australia's state the first to be able to break the end-to-end encryption of Whatsapp, with other Western governments including the UK having shied away from doing so in the face of fierce criticism. 

The government's cyber security adviser Alastair MacGibbon said the state had been able to lawfully intercept telephone conversations for almost half a century and needed the new powers to keep pace with the modern world.  

Despite fierce debate, the legislation rushed through parliament late on Thursday night, on the last day of sitting for the year, after the opposition Labor party agreed to drop amendments in the interest of public safety over the Christmas break.

"I think these laws were rushed," opposition leader Bill Shorten admitted on Friday.

Australia's top legal body, the Law Council of Australia, on Friday said the legislation "rammed" through parliament left open the possibility of "overreach" from the police and intelligence officials.

The council was concerned the new laws could circumvent the need for authorities to get a warrant before obtaining communications, while people could be detained in some circumstances without being allowed to contact a lawyer.

"It's not just the rights of citizens that are potentially compromised by this outcome, but intelligence agencies and law enforcement that are at risk of acting unlawfully," said council president Morry Bailes in a statement.

Digital Industry Group Inc, a non-profit body that represents Google, Facebook and Twitter, said the laws were unneceesary. 

"This legislation is out of step with surveillance and privacy legislation in Europe and other countries that have strong national security concerns," said the group in a statement.