Nicolette Boele (Bradfield, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is for the Attorney-General. The Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion released its interim report last month. The government accepted all 14 of the report's recommendations. Five of these recommendations are classified. Given that there is no way for us to know the nature and the content of these five classified recommendations, how can we—this parliament and its people—hold the government to account in implementing them?

Michelle Rowland (Greenway, Australian Labor Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for her question. Indeed, the royal commission did deliver its interim report to government on 30 April. The final report will be delivered on 14 December. The first hearing block of witnesses commenced on 4 May, and the second block commenced yesterday. I also want to put on the record again the appreciation of this parliament to members of the Jewish community who've given valuable evidence on their personal lived experiences of antisemitism, and I thank those who have come forward in the now over 12,500 submissions that have been made.

For the benefit of the member and the house, the royal commission has now established a dashboard tracking key elements of its proceedings, and I encourage members to visit that at asc.royalcommission.gov.au. On the issue the member raises of oversight of confidential recommendations in the interim report, the member is correct. Recommendations eight to 12 of the interim report are indeed confidential. The government has accepted all recommendations relevant to the Commonwealth, and we will work with state and territory governments to adopt a national approach to implement all 14 of those recommendations, including those which are confidential.

For the benefit of the house, two versions of the interim report were presented by the royal commission—firstly, a declassified version suitable for public release and a confidential version marked 'Top Secret' with a number of agency codewords and caveats. In addition, Commissioner Bell issued a non-publication direction under section 63 of the Royal Commissions Act for parts of the interim report. The non-publication direction limits communication of security classified information in the confidential report. The direction was considered necessary, such as the sensitivity of the information shared with the royal commission, which includes highly classified national security information and operationally sensitive information including as relevant to active investigations as well as the current prosecution. I know the honourable member will appreciate that it is critical to not disclose any operational information relating to the criminal investigation to avoid risk of prejudicing the prosecution.

I can assure the member that the government takes this direction seriously and we take all the recommendations in the interim report seriously. Our national security agencies have robust oversight, including by the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security as well as the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security.