Australia TOLA (Assistance and Access Act)
In force since December 2018
The first Western law built to compel tech companies to help break their own encryption: secret notices, criminal penalties for disclosure, and a 'systemic weakness' safeguard nobody can define.
Latest update
Royal assent
The bill
Read the full billOfficial bill recordKey facts
- Where
- Australia
- Bill number
- Act No. 148 of 2018
- Status
- Law
- Threat
- High
- Last update
- December 8, 2018
Topics
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What it does
TOLA created three escalating tools: technical assistance requests, technical assistance notices, and technical capability notices, the last compelling companies to build new capabilities for agencies. Notices are secret, disclosing one is criminal, and the law's protection against being forced to create a systemic weakness has never been given a workable definition. Rushed through Parliament in December 2018 on a promise of later amendments that mostly never came, it has been the template cited in London and Ottawa since.
What’s at stake
TOLA proved a democracy would pass compelled-decryption power, and the UK's notices regime and Canada's C-22 borrow its design. The secrecy means Australians learn how the powers are used only through mandated reports and leaks, which is the model the copies inherit too.
Our take
The world's encryption fight started here in practice: pass the power fast, define the safeguards never, and let allied governments cite you. Eight years on, the promised fixes have not arrived and the export market is thriving.
Timeline
Royal assentLatest
Passed Parliament in the final sitting week
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