AFP, ASIO to front parliamentary inquiry into data retention laws

Australia's domestic spy agency is due to front a parliamentary inquiry into the government's proposed data-retention laws.

Along with ASIO, the joint committee on intelligence and security will hear evidence from the Australian Federal Police, telcos and civil liberty groups on Friday.

The government wants to force telecommunications companies to store metadata for two years. Many only keep data for the billing cycle, often due to cost.

The laws are designed to give ASIO more scope to identify terrorism but are opposed by civil libertarians as dangerous.

However, in its submission to the committee, the AFP claims investigations that rely on metadata will "continue to be frustrated" by the inconsistency of storage across service providers.

Optus says the proposed data set is "basically workable" but wants to see draft regulations that will supplement the legislation.

It also wants to be able to limit the amount of metadata stored in special cases, including data of very high volume but little use to agencies.

The telco says the obligations will impose a "substantial net cost, scheduling and resource impact" on the company and processes would take time to implement.