APF board member Roger Clarke called on the government to provide clarity and scope on the new proposals, including what the changes hope to ultimately achieve and who will be affected. "Any employer that acted on the powers of interception (under the NSW bill) are in breach of the TIA and the Privacy Act if they are accessing the information of non-employees," Clarke said.

"The attempts of the Attorney-General's Departments of successive governments to get some changes to the TIA have been torn apart by various agencies because they haven't addressed scope.

"Every time ministers open their mouths on this type of policy, they keep saying something stupid." He said the scope of the changes can be interpreted to apply to all employers, to private organisations with a responsibility to national infrastructure, or to investigators of serious threats against nation infrastructure.

"The last thing we want is private investigators running with enormous powers if an act of terrorism occurs," Clarke said, speaking of McClelland's reference that the employers powers is a counter-terrorism measure.

The APF has argued for years for workplace privacy protection law reform, and for interception to be solely in the hands of trained investigators under the public service framework.

Both Murphy, Clarke and EFA chair Dale Clapperton called for government to document what it sees as problems with the TIA.

The government's wiretapping scheme is this week's topic on Vent IT, to vent your spleen click here