"Riana Pfefferkorn, associate director of surveillance and cybersecurity at Stanford Center for Internet and Society, pointed out that this undermines the protection granted to journalists under other national security laws.
The data retention legislation, in fact, had a niche for journalists that imposed law enforcement to have a specific warrant for journalists. In a personal submission to the review, Pfefferkorn said that the combination of the new powers de facto invalidates the need to obtain a specific warrant.
“Law enforcement’s powers granted under the Data Retention Act in 2015 were augmented by the new powers the Assistance and Access Act provided at the end of 2018, creating the framework that authorised the federal police in mid-2019 to raid the homes and offices of journalists over articles published in July 2017 and April 2018, in defiance of international norms,” said Pfefferkorn."