Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull introduced the much-anticipated legislation on 30 October. As has happened several times in this debate already, Mr Turnbull immediately found himself having to quell political fires lit by others. This time it was the recently-appointed Australian Federal Police Commissioner Andrew Colvin, who enthusiastically declared that “absolutely” the data that the Government want telecommunications Service Providers to retain about their customers’ communications could be used to track down the so-called “pirates” who infringe online copyright by illegally downloading movies, music, software and more.

Malcolm and the good Commissioner were both standing at a press conference when the unfortunate remarks were made, so a sharp kick under the table wasn’t an option available to the Minister.

Within 24 hours the position had been hurriedly clarified – no, in fact, the Government and its agencies would not be using the retained metadata to chase pirates. But if that’s the case, industry wondered – why is the Government asking for the upload and download volumes of Australian internet users to be retained and made available to security agencies?

High volumes can be a telling sign of a user engaging in illegal file-sharing, but can equally well indicate that the user is a graphic designer sending big files, a harried parent with many children surfing the web, a porn addict, a gaming nut or a small business. But are high volumes a secret sign that the user is a crook or a potential terrorist?

This is one of the myriad of issues that a new industry/Government working group will be tasked with examining as it seeks to put meat on the bones of the dataset that is described in higher-level terms in the legislation. The working group also faces the complex task of determining how much additional cost the telecommunications internet industry faces in order to design new systems to capture data that they don’t presently collect for business purposes. Industry estimates have ranged into the hundreds of millions of dollars, sparking fears that consumers will face the inevitability of higher prices for their internet service if a data retention regime is introduced.

The Government has said it will make a substantial contribution to up-front capital costs and to the ongoing operating expenses of the scheme. The focus will undoubtedly be on what that commitment translates into in hard cash – and whether the shortfall will place a burden on ordinary (and mostly law-abiding) internet users.

The working group will be expected to make recommendations to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security (PJCIS), which has been asked to review the legislation and make recommendations back to Government.

But the push is on to have the PJCIS complete its work (including calling for public submissions and holding public hearings) by late January – begging the question as to how the difficult and sequential tasks of the working group and PJCIS can all be squeezed into the Government’s desired schedule. The ALP members of the Committee can be expected to push back on the Government pressure, arguing instead for a reporting deadline sometime in February at the very earliest.

It sets the scene for plenty of cancelled vacation and long hours of work for both groups, at a time when most of the rest of the nation will be reaching under the tree, popping a cork or two and recovering from a game of backyard cricket.

*Information for this column was correct as of 7 November 2014

ABOUT JOHN STANTON//

John Stanton is the CEO of the industry umbrella group, the Communications Alliance, and is a seasoned communications industry executive with over 18 years of senior management experience. He is a former CEO of People Telecom, a former President of Intelsat, and former senior executive at Telstra.