Controversial metadata laws to be debated in lower house

Controversial metadata retention laws will be debated for the first time in parliament's lower house on Thursday.

The draft laws, which force telecommunications companies to retain customer data for two years, were introduced last year but debate was held back for a parliamentary committee to finish its report.

That report, released last week, said the bill should be passed but called for safeguards for journalists and customers' web-browsing histories to be protected.

It also called on the government to help telcos meet the cost of data retention, estimated at between $188.8 million and $319.1 million.

The government has agreed to some of that advice, saying it will make a "reasonable" contribution to telcos' costs.

It is also clarifying the regime won't require the capture of customer passwords, PINs, or their web-browsing histories.

The government wants the legislation to be passed by both houses by the week of March 16, saying the laws are urgent not just for counter-terrorism measures but to combat child exploitation and other serious crimes.

However, civil libertarians opposed to the regime have increased their attacks on the proposed laws in recent days.

An online campaign dubbed "Curious George" - a reference to the attorney-general - is urging people to flood George Brandis's email inbox by adding him to all their outgoing messages.

Metadata is information collected from devices, including phone numbers used, how long people talk to each other, the email address from which a message is sent and the time messages are sent.