Dozens of agencies want warrantless access to Australians' metadata again

More than 60 departments, councils and other agencies at all levels of government want their access to stored personal data back

More than 60 government agencies are seeking to regain warrantless access to Australians' phone and web metadata, in what appears to be a major pushback after the federal government restricted the number of agencies that could access it.

In 2015, the federal government succeeded in passing controversial news laws that vastly increased the amount of Australians' personal phone and web data required to be held by telecommunications companies.