Senate debates
Monday, 4 July 2011
Bills
Tax Laws Amendment (2011 Measures No. 2) Bill 2011, Corporations Amendment (Improving Accountability on Director and Executive Remuneration) Bill 2011, Tax Laws Amendment (2011 Measures No. 4) Bill 2011, Tax Laws Amendment (Medicare Levy and Medicare Levy Surcharge) Bill 2011, International Tax Agreements Amendment Bill (No. 1) 2011, Acts Interpretation Amendment Bill 2011, Midwife Professional Indemnity Legislation Amendment Bill 2011, Social Security Legislation Amendment (Job Seeker Compliance) Bill 2011, Social Security Amendment (Parenting Payment Transitional Arrangement) Bill 2011, Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs and Other Legislation Amendment (Election Commitments and Other Measures) Bill 2011, Tax Laws Amendment (2011 Measures No. 3) Bill 2011, Family Assistance and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2011, Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs and Other Legislation Amendment (Further Election Commitments and Other Measures) Bill 2011, Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre Supervisory Cost Recovery Levy Bill 2011
7:40 pm
David Feeney (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Defence) Share this | Hansard source
Two points, Senator. The first is that ASIO's mandate, if you will—and that is my word—is set out in the section I am looking at here, which is where 'security' is defined. It is part I, section 4. There we see the definition of security:
"security" means:
and then it is set out in paragraphs (a), (aa) and (b). I think we see there a codification of some of the issues that you are looking for.
I guess that when one contemplates the Cold War one is contemplating an environment that is dramatically transformed today. We are obviously not today working in an environment where there is something of a global contest between two clearly discernible ideologies and constellations of nation states. What we are looking at today is, firstly, a multipolar international environment where non-state actors are particularly relevant and, secondly, an environment which has been transformed by technology. So the sorts of materials you were talking about and the sorts of tools that are required to monitor the movement of those materials, I think, have greatly changed, and as legislators we need to make sure that that is something we remain abreast of.
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