The Australian Government has received such a huge amount of data harvested by the US National Security Agency they’ve had to build a large new complex just to store it all, according to reports.

Fairfax Media claims Australian intelligence agencies receive what Defence intelligence officials describe as ''huge volumes'' of ''immensely valuable'' information derived from PRISM and other US signals intelligence collection programs.

The PRISM program has been making headlines recently, after CIA whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed the massive scale of the US government’s digital spying network, which includes gathering information on private citizens from companies such as Facebook, Apple and Google.

In Australia, a state-of-the-art high security facility has been constructed near Canberra to deal with the ‘deluge’ of data from the US. The $163.5 million HMAS Harman Communications Facility Project includes an extension to the existing Defence Network Operations Centre, the central hub of Australia's third-largest telecommunications network, and the construction of what is described as ''a co-located but stand-alone communication/data-room facility''

New information on the PRISM program has lead to widespread concerns on the ethics of data-mining and government access.

Greens communications spokesperson Senator Scott Ludlam says, “the Australian Government has denied any knowledge of the NSA’s widespread online surveillance of people around the world since it was revealed by Edward Snowden. It is now clear that the ‘hear no evil, see no evil’ routine is a sham,” “The Australian Government was aware of the spying, and collaborating to circumvent due process through receipt of vast amounts of surveillance material from the United States.”