Jenny Ware (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Modernisation) Bill 2022. Broadly, this legislation relates to the way our intelligence and security agents operate. I take this opportunity to endorse the words spoken by the member for Braddon today in this place and thank all those who serve our country through working in our intelligence and security agencies. Most of this work is necessarily done in secrecy, and it is therefore very important that the Australian public have trust and faith in our intelligence and security agencies.

I turn to the bill itself. The stated purpose of the bill is to amend the 1986 act and a number of other related acts. This will involve tidying up some administrative matters, including enhancing the Inspector-General's oversight powers, supporting appropriate information sharing by the Office of the Inspector-General and implementing two recommendations that came out of the Comprehensive Review of the Legal Framework of the National Intelligence Community. Particularly, those two recommendations related to the appointment of the IGIS Inspector-General and consideration of employment related grievances. The bill will also make consequential amendments to a range of legislation to ensure that information that is protected by existing secrecy offences under that legislation can be disclosed to IGIS officials who are performing duties or functions or exercising those powers as IGIS officials. For all the reasons that I'm now going to highlight, I support this bill.

Just broadly, the structure of the bill is divided into three schedules. Part 1 contains primary amendments to the IGIS Act, which the government states is aimed at improving and streamlining IGIS reporting and information-sharing procedures. It also seeks to modernise and clarify drafting expressions and removes some redundant provisions. Part 2 then contains consequential amendments to a wide range of related legislation, including the Australian Human Rights Commission Act, the ASIO Act, the Intelligence Services Act and the Office of National Intelligence Act. Schedule 2 includes amendments that, it's stated, are in line with the National Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2022.

By way of background, the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, which I have referred to as the IGIS, is an independent statutory holder in Australia established under the IGIS Act. It reviews the activities of Australia's intelligence and security agencies to ensure that they are acting with legality and propriety and consistent with human rights. The IGIS has the power to investigate complaints, conduct own-motion inquiries and conduct inquiries as directed by the minister and also has the power to access information held by intelligence agencies. This is obviously very important, and when accessing that information the IGIS has two main aims. These are, firstly, to ensure that the public interest in the proper functioning of the security and intelligence agencies is met and, secondly, to promote public confidence in the national intelligence community, known as the NIC. There are many acronyms within this legislation that I'm going to refer to.

In regard to the purposes and functions of the IGIS generally, the stated purposes of the IGIS include assisting ministers in oversight and review of a range of matters. These include things such as the legal compliance and the propriety of intelligence agencies, the effectiveness and appropriateness of the procedures of intelligence agencies and various other aspects that are incidental to the legal compliance issues. Another purpose of the IGIS is to ensure that the activities of intelligence agencies are in alignment with human rights. The IGIS also has the function of investigating Commonwealth agency intelligence or security matters, which can include agencies that are not intelligence agencies. The last stated purpose is to assist the government in assuring parliament and the public that there is scrutiny of intelligence and security matters associated with Commonwealth agencies, with a focus on intelligence agencies.

As you can see, Mr Acting Deputy Speaker Stevens, the IGIS has very important purposes and functions. Generally, the IGIS reviews various intelligence agencies under its jurisdiction. These include ASIO; ASIS; the Australian Signals Directorate, ASD; the Australian Geospatial-Intelligence Organisation, which is known as AGO; the Defence Intelligence Organisation, or DIO; and the Office of National Intelligence, ONI. Therefore, IGIS has oversight of network activity warrants by the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission and the AFP.

In fulfilling the purposes and powers to which I've just referred, the IGIS has the power to formally inquire into the activities of Australian intelligence agencies in instances of a complaint or of referrals from a minister. The Inspector-General can also initiate inquiries, conduct inspections, monitor agencies and, in some instances, investigate complaints. When conducting inquiries, the Inspector-General has the power, among others, to require the attendance of a witness, take sworn evidence, copy and retain documents, and enter the premises of Australian intelligence agencies, so it has very broad powers of investigation.

I am just going to speak now to the review of the legal framework of the national intelligence community. This is work that was commissioned by the then Attorney-General in May 2018 and was undertaken by Mr Dennis Richardson, AC. The terms of reference of the review provided that the review would comprehensively examine the effectiveness of the legislative framework for the NIC and prepare findings and recommendations for any reforms. The outcomes of the review were delivered in a report released by the then Attorney-General on 4 December 2020. With respect to the amendments contained in the bill on which I speak today, relevant recommendations included what I will call recommendation 172 and recommendation 174.

In detail, recommendation 172 provided:

The Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security Act should be amended to preclude the appointment to the Office of the IGIS of a person whose immediate prior role was as head or deputy head of an agency within the IGIS' oversight remit.

Recommendation 174 provided:

The Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security Act should be amended to give the IGIS an inquiry function for employment related grievances of staff employed under the Office of National Intelligence Act.

The government response to the report was released on the same day as the report itself. With respect to recommendations 172, the government at the time noted:

Agreed. The IGIS has a unique role as the primary body with responsibility for intelligence oversight. Accordingly, this additional safeguard on IGIS's independence (and perceived independence) is appropriate.

Recommendation 174 was also agreed to by the government. The purpose of these recommendations is to allow the IGIS to ensure propriety and compliance with laws, ministerial directions and guidelines, and consistency with human rights.

The IGIS can make inquiries firstly of its own motion, secondly in response to complaints and thirdly in response to disclosures from members of the public, including current and former agency staff, under the PID Act 2013 or at the request of a responsible minister or the Prime Minister. The IGIS has strong investigative powers similar to those of a royal commission. As such, we have to ensure that there is integrity in the process and that we have confidence that the investigative powers of the IGIS are being carried out appropriately. Significant resources are directed towards ongoing investigation to identify issues before the need for major remedial action.

To conclude, this bill updates the IGIS Act to bring it into line with modern drafting standards. Importantly, it also implements two recommendations, recommendations 172 and 174, of the Comprehensive Review of the Legal Framework of the National Intelligence Community, also known as the Richardson review. I note this was work done under the former coalition government. The two recommendations were agreed by the previous coalition government, and the provisions are to ensure that the IGIS is able to continue to act independently. For all of the reasons I've already stated, I commend this bill to the House.

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