Kym Richardson (Kingston, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today in support of the ASIO Legislation Amendment Bill 2006, which seeks to amend the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Act 1979. One of the key amendments in this bill relates to the current sunset clause. In the absence of this amendment, the current questioning and detention powers contained in division 3 of the existing act would cease on 23 July 2006. This amendment bill seeks to extend by 10 years the existing sunset clause provision and prior review by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, ensuring that the sunset clause would not come into effect until 22 July 2016 and requiring prior review by the parliamentary joint committee by 22 January 2016.

Experience over the past decade has shown that the current questioning regime has proved exceptionally valuable in obtaining important and relevant information about this government’s fight against terrorism. The safety and wellbeing of the members in the gallery, our schoolchildren who are looking down upon us and all Australians are paramount. There are exceptionally stringent safeguards to ensure that the personal rights and liberties of those being questioned and/or detained are protected and that those personnel involved in the process are subject to a series of accountability mechanisms. It is not enough to simply demand that our intelligence organisations keep us safe from the ever-growing global threat of terrorism; we must equip them with lawful means of doing that very important job.

Schedule 1 of the bill involves simplification, restructuring, correction and language changes as well as some alteration to the numberings in the act. Schedule 1 does not contain any substantive changes; they are merely administrative. The schedule gives effect to recommendations 2 and 3 of the parliamentary joint committee’s report.

Schedule 2 of the bill implements in whole or in part a number of the remaining recommendations of the parliamentary joint committee and addresses other issues which arose during the committee’s review. Schedule 2 clarifies the ability of subjects of either a questioning-only warrant or a questioning and detention warrant to make complaints. It also enhances the requirement that subjects be informed of the capacity to make complaints and facilitate the making of those complaints. The schedule inserts positive rights of contact with a lawyer for those individuals who are subject to a questioning-only warrant, as is already the case with questioning and detention warrants. It also extends the provisions which provide ASIO with the ability to challenge the presence of a lawyer where a person is detained under a questioning-only warrant.

Schedule 2 requires the prescribed authority to explain more clearly their role and includes an explanatory note to signpost avenues of judicial review, both of which are in accordance with recommendations of the parliamentary joint committee. This bill seeks to find the delicate balance between providing our law enforcement and intelligence agencies with the power they need to do the job we demand of them and ensuring the right of Australians to justice, legal representation and procedural fairness.

The amendments contained in this bill provide an opportunity for the lawyer involved to address the prescribed authority during breaks in questioning. The bill also amends secrecy provisions to cater for disclosures to additional complaints bodies and requires the prescribed authority, the director-general and the Attorney-General to take certain issues into account in deciding whether to permit disclosures. Such matters to be considered include the person’s family and employment interests, the public interest and the risk to security.

Schedule 2 inserts statutory financial assistance provisions so that an individual has a statutory right to apply for financial assistance for legal and related costs arising from the questioning proceedings. We recognise that not all individuals have at their disposal the financial resources to engage legal representation. We also recognise the important role lawyers play in ensuring individuals receive adequate protection of their rights.

One of the very important provisions in schedule 2 of the bill clarifies the distinction between questioning-only warrants and questioning and detention warrants. In doing this, the amendments ensure that procedural time spent processing an individual is not counted towards the questioning time limits. This particular provision ensures that the administrative requirements will be complied with, while also ensuring that intelligence and law enforcement personnel are able to use the time within which they are legally able to question an individual for relevant and meaningful purposes.

The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security delivered its report on the proposed amendments to the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Act. This bill demonstrates the Australian government’s responsiveness by giving effect to many of the parliamentary joint committee’s recommendations and addressing specific concerns which arose during the review.

In my former occupation, I was a police officer on the front lines. I know all too well the struggle when you are required to do a job but are not afforded the power you require to do that job effectively. The fight against terrorism and the ever-increasing threat that we as a nation face from terrorism cannot be underestimated, and we must empower our intelligence and law enforcement officials with the appropriate power to do their job. These amendments afford them that power while ensuring the rights and freedoms of individuals and by clarifying exactly what those rights and freedoms are. For these reasons I commend the bill to the House.

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