The AGD also told the hearing that an internal taskforce was established by Wilkins in May 2010 to examine the Telecommunications Interception Act, with a report handed to Wilkins following around six months of meetings containing an analysis of failures of the Telecommunications Interception Act and how it could be changed.

"Why? Because it was clear ... that this was a fairly gothic piece of legislation, it was no longer usable [and] it had so many exceptions -- it was so complicated we needed to have a look at what had gone wrong. It needed to be thrown up in the air and probably some of the assumptions looked at and rewritten," Wilkins said.

While the taskforce primarily comprised of AGD staff, Wilkins said ASIO and the AFP were also asked to participate in the taskforce to provide technical knowledge.

Wilkins stated that while the taskforce looked at metadata, as it is already currently part of the Telecommunications Interception Act, the group did not examine data retention.

The AGD denied meetings with industry had any influence on the taskforce and its findings.