David Johnston (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Justice and Customs) Share this | Hansard source

To go on with your issue of safeguards generally, before agreeing to the communication of AUSTRAC information to overseas agencies, the Director-General of ASIS—and this is within the legislation itself—would need to be satisfied that the foreign intelligence agency has given appropriate undertakings for protecting the confidentiality of the information, controlling the use that will be made of it and ensuring that it is only used for the purpose for which it is communicated. In addition, the director-general would need to be satisfied that the communication of the information is appropriate in all of the circumstances of the case.

Further to this, there is oversight by the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, IGIS. As you well know, Senator Nettle, this is an important accountability mechanism which operates independently of government and has extensive investigative mandatory powers. Further to that, the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security is another oversight body and accountability mechanism for ASIS.

I note that you have suggested in the past that the IGIS is underresourced and understaffed. In recent years the government has considerably enhanced the appropriations for those bodies, particularly ASIS and the IGIS. There has been a substantial boost in the resources of the office of the inspector-general in line with its increasing function and the operational intensity of the agencies it oversights.

It is quite untrue to suggest that the inspector-general has to wait for complaints in order to be an effective oversight and accountability mechanism. My understanding is that the inspector-general is very proactive in this area. He is an independent person who is completely separate from the agencies and, as I said, from government. He takes his role seriously and provides independent assurance to the Australian government, the parliament and the community that the security intelligence agencies conduct their activities according to the law, behave with propriety, obey ministerial guidelines and directives, and respect human rights. In the scheme of what I have asked you to explain—the mischief—I feel very comfortable that there is no problem with respect to this aspect of your complaint.