Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Modernisation) Bill 2022 amends the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security Act 1986, implementing outstanding recommendations from the comprehensive review of the legal framework of the intelligence community, known as the Richardson review, undertaken by Dennis Richardson. I should take this time to acknowledge the work of Mr Richardson at his review.

The Richardson review was initiated by the coalition while in government. It provided important guidance about the way in which the oversight framework for our intelligence community could be strengthened. At the heart of liberal democracies is the concept of accountability. Built into our public life are mechanisms that allow for that accountability through the media, civil society and parliament. Questions can be asked of those who hold positions of authority and who exercise responsibilities on behalf of others. The capacity for the public to inquire and scrutinise the activities of those who hold power is part of what makes our institution strong. But, by necessity, when it comes to the intelligence community, those mechanisms are different.

Secrecy is part of what enables our intelligence agencies to do their work, and that must not be undermined. To misunderstand or undervalue secrecy, for these agencies, is to put lives at risk and compromise the capacity of agencies to continue keeping Australians safe into the future. When secrets are divulged or information is shared that should be classified, the entire architecture of our intelligence community is weakened.

Given this, the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security and other bodies that provide oversight and give scrutiny to our intelligence agencies are extraordinarily important. These oversight bodies hold our agencies to account. They also enable the public to have confidence in their agencies. Oversight must be robust, credible and effective. It must be thorough. This is not in order to undermine the work of intelligence agencies but to give them the credibility needed to maintain the trust of the broader public.

The Richardson review gave Australians many reasons to be encouraged about the state of Australia's intelligence community and the legal frameworks under which they operate. While it provided a number of recommendations to strengthen the legal architecture it also reaffirmed that the fundamental principles that underpin Australia's intelligence legislation remain fit for purpose.

I want to talk a little bit about the role of the IGIS as envisaged under changes to this bill. Among the changes recommended by the Richardson review was an adjustment to the remit of the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security to reflect the changed architecture of Australia's intelligence community. This bill follows on from the coalition's bill in the last parliament, the Intelligence Oversight and Other Legislation Amendment (Integrity Measures) Bill 2020, and enacts some of those changes from the Richardson review.

Specifically, the bill seeks to bring the treatment of the Defence Intelligence Organisation and the Office of National Intelligence into line with the treatment of other agencies when it comes to the initiation of an investigation. The Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security will be able to inquire into the Defence Intelligence Organisation and the Office of National Intelligence in response to a complaint not just on its own motion or in response to the direction of the minister. This is consistent with the treatment of other agencies under the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security's remit.

The bill also aims to reduce duplication between the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security and other oversight bodies such as the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force and the Commonwealth Ombudsman. It contains information-sharing provisions that are intended to avoid the double handling of complaints and inquiries.

The bill also gives the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security a clearer capacity to receive information from a broad range of sources while ensuring that information is protected to the largest extent possible. This is important as it strengthens the capacity for the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security to carry out its work.

The bill seeks to ensure that when an Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security is appointed, they have some appropriate distance from the agencies they will oversee. This is the implementation of recommendation 172 of the Richardson review and means that a person cannot be appointed Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security if their immediate prior role was as head or deputy head of an agency within the Inspector-General's remit.

The bill also provides other changes, including the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, with additional jurisdiction to investigate employment related grievances at the Office of National Intelligence, given that staff at the ONI may be employed under the ONI Act and not under the Public Service Act. The Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security already has jurisdiction to inquire into employment related grievances from ASIO, ASIS and ASD employees where staff have no other redress mechanisms readily available to them.

The bill also contains a number of measures that bring the IGIS Act into line with modern operating procedures. For example, it allows the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security to engage consultants and contract service providers rather than just employing staff.

The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security was referred this bill by the Attorney-General, and I thank him for that reference. In their examination of this bill, they have made a couple of important recommendations that are worth noting. In particular, the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security noted that numerous inquiries have recommended an expanded oversight for the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security and the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security to cover the entirety of the national intelligence community. The Attorney-General has given his assurance that the government is giving this due consideration, and we look forward to seeing the government progress this matter.

The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security also recommended the need for greater information sharing between the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security and the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, and we wait to see the government's response to those matters.

As I've said, many of the measures contained in this bill are measures that the coalition introduced in the Intelligence Oversight and Other Legislation Amendment (Integrity Measures) Bill 2020. The coalition support this bill. We can continue to support those measures as they're enacted through this bill, and I commend the bill to the House.

Debate adjourned.