The NSW Council for Civil Liberties (NSWCCL) condemns a new omnibus bill introduced by NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley, warning it will significantly expand police powers across three key areas that massively increase state surveillance and treat law-abiding citizens as automated suspects.
The Crimes and Other Legislation Amendment (Further Organised Crimes Reforms) Bill 2026 will strip existing privacy protections to build an unprecedented police surveillance network in NSW. The changes allow NSW Police Force to access to personal mobile devices during routine arrests, roadside stops and other lawful detentions, mandate the automatic upload of millions of driver's licences into a federal facial recognition database, and give police access to high-resolution toll cameras that can see through to the inside of a car to track drivers and passengers.
The NSWCCL warns that the bill’s broad legal definitions cast a dangerously wide net, meaning regular people will be treated as suspects, could have the contents of their phones downloaded with a Cellebrite hacking device, and have their whereabouts tracked by the Police. The lack of appropriate safeguards in this bill means that data could be stored indefinitely and misused.
These proposals, rolled in to supposedly stop organised crime, add to existing conditions of surveillance and searches that NSW residents are already subject to - including NSW Police Drone Surveillance that is set to be rolled out statewide, CCTV towers and aerial surveillance at protests, police knife wanding powers and strip searches.
Together, these measures expand government surveillance tenfold and challenge fundamental human rights of privacy, freedom of movement, freedom of expression, and peaceful assembly.
Comments attributable to Timothy Roberts, NSWCCL President:
“We are looking at a future where police can demand your phone passcodes on the beat under threat of seven years in prison, using controversial forensic software to download your entire digital life including encrypted and deleted content.
“At the same time, the Minns government is quietly trying to hand over our driver's licence photos to a federal biometric database without any public consultation, resurrecting Peter Dutton’s mass surveillance network plan that federal bipartisan committees rejected.
“By giving Police unredacted access to our toll networks and ability to face match, the government is effectively building a state-owned version of the 'Flock' camera networks used in the United States. In the US, such surveillance systems are seeing massive public opposition with reports of the cameras producing incorrect suspects, systemic corruption, and dozens of rogue police officers using the cameras to stalk their wives, and ex-partners.
"NSW residents are already subjected to an intense level of over-policing. This bill further removes independent judicial oversight, excludes the role of the NSW Surveillance Devices Commissioner, and explicitly overrides privacy protections. We call on the crossbench and the opposition to protect basic civil liberties and block this
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