Gordon Reid (Robertson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, I present the committee's Advisory report on the Strengthening Oversight of the National Intelligence Community Bill 2025.

Report made a parliamentary paper in accordance with standing order 39(e).

by leave—The Strengthening Oversight of the National Intelligence Community Bill 2025, also known as the SONIC Bill, represents arguably the most significant reform to oversight of the Australian intelligence community since the 1980s. The bill realises important and long-awaited reforms that have been recommended by multiple independent reviews over a number of years. The bill will ensure that Australia's intelligence oversight framework evolves in line with the increasingly complex intelligence and security environment.

The SONIC Bill proposes to expand the oversight functions of the committee and of the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security to include all 10 agencies of the national intelligence community. This includes the whole of the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission as well as the intelligence functions of the Australian Federal Police, AUSTRAC and the Department of Home Affairs.

The bill also broadens the own-motion powers of the Independent National Security Legislation Monitor and includes measures to strengthen the relationship between the three oversight bodies.

In relation to the committee, the bill will give statutory recognition to the increasing role the committee has had in recent years in reviewing counterterrorism and national security legislation. The bill will enable the committee to review proposed reforms to such legislation as well as existing sunsetting legislation on its own motion or on referral by the relevant minister, the Attorney-General or a house of the parliament.

The bill will also empower the committee to request the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security to inquire into an agency's operational activities and the committee to receive a response from the inspector-general after such inquiry has been completed.

Through the committee's review and through its review of the bill's predecessor in the 47th Parliament, the Intelligence Services Legislation Amendment Bill 2023, the committee held two public hearings and received 23 written submissions, most of which supported the bill's core measures.

As well as broadening the remit of the committee and the two independent oversight bodies, the bill contains important administrative amendments to the Intelligence Services Act 2001, affecting how the committee itself operates. The committee has ensured it has taken the time to carefully examine these amendments before giving them its support.

As a result, the committee's report includes a number of recommendations aimed at refining and building upon those amendments to ensure the provisions will be as effective as possible. These include a recommendation to give the committee a standing function to review its own operating provisions as required in the future.

The committee has also recommended changes to allow the chair and deputy chair of the committee to nominate a member of their staff to be provided with an appropriate security clearance that allows them to assist their respective principal in the performance of their duties on the committee. This reflects the increasing workload and the increasing responsibilities on the chair and deputy chair as the committee's remit has grown, as well as the strict disclosure offences in the Intelligence Services Act 2001, which limit the support that regular staff can provide.

Overall, the committee strongly supports the objectives of the bill to strengthen the operational, parliamentary and legislative oversight of the national intelligence community. Following consideration of the committee's other recommendations, the committee recommends that the bill be passed by the parliament. I'd like to thank the chair, the deputy chair and all the members of the committee that have been involved in the creation and publication of this report, as well as the secretariat and their support staff. They all work so hard in support of the committee, in support of the parliament, and I think it's absolutely vital that we give them our recognition in this place.

I commend this report to the House.

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