The AGD also confirmed that it had carried out meetings with the telecommunications industry in 2009 and 2010 around the possibility of establishing a data retention scheme.

While the department denied it had given members of industry a policy proposal around data retention, Smith said the department had passed on two documents, with one document just one page long.

Smith told the committee that ASIO, the AFP, the Australian Crimes Commission, the Department of Broadband and Communications Digital Economy and possibly ACMA were all involved with the creation of the documents.

"Senator, we consulted [the industry] on what two years data retention would look like and what the implications could be on industry and the type of information that they could hold [and] the potential costs of it. There was no actual proposal put to them," Smith said.

Smith said the documents contained a "draft" of what data retention might entail but insisted the documents were not policy proposals.