Tony Pasin (Barker, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Previously, when I was speaking in relation to the Counter-Terrorism Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 1) 2014 I was indicating that the second important limb of this legislation is the emergency ministerial authorisations. Presently, there is no legal basis on which agencies can undertake activities in these circumstances—that is, in circumstances where a relevant minister may be temporarily uncontactable and when there is an urgent, previously unforeseen need to collect vital intelligence; meaning, in those circumstances, that critical intelligence collection opportunities may have been missed. The amendments will address this by enabling an agency head to grant a limited emergency authorisation, subject to rigorous and extensive safeguards and oversight mechanisms. These authorisations are strictly limited, as they ought to be, to a 48-hour maximum period and cannot be renewed.

Additional issuing criteria apply to authorisations by agency heads, including express consideration of whether the relevant minister would have been likely to grant the authorisation on the basis of the existing statutory criteria. Further, to ensure it is only available in an extreme emergency, the agency head must also be satisfied that, if the activity was not authorised, security would be seriously prejudiced or there would be a serious risk to a person's safety. The minister must be notified as soon as practicable within the 48-hour period and is under a positive obligation to make a decision about whether it should continue within that 48-hour maximum period, or be cancelled or replaced with a ministerial authorisation. The Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security must also be notified as soon as practicable within three days.

The amendments also provide for contingency arrangements in the event that the Attorney-General is not readily available or contactable to provide his or her agreement to the making of an emergency ministerial authorisation, where such agreement is required because the authorisation concerns the undertaking of activities in relation to Australian persons who are or who are likely to be engaged in activities that are or are likely to be a threat to security. The amendments address an unintended limitation in the ability of ministers to issue emergency authorisations. Presently, no provision is made for ministers to issue these authorisations orally, with a written record to be made of that decision. This is incompatible with the circumstances of urgency in which emergency authorisations are designed to operate and with the longstanding approach to other forms of emergency authorisation, including search warrants, telecommunications interception warrants, surveillance devices warrants et cetera. The proposed amendments bring the emergency ministerial authorisation processes within the Intelligence Services Act into line with other approaches.

The amendments to the Criminal Code will further strengthen the control order regime and enhance the capacity of law enforcement agencies to protect the public from terrorist acts. The amendments will allow the Australian Federal Police to request an issuing court to make a control order in relation to those who enable and those who recruit. Although such individuals may not directly participate in terrorist acts, their conduct in supporting and facilitating terrorism through the provision of funds and equipment, or by recruiting vulnerable young people to champion their cause—and even to die for it—is instrumental to carrying out terrorist conduct. The expansion of the control order regime to cover such individuals will help disrupt terrorism at an early stage, keeping Australia and Australians safe and secure. The amendments to the control order regime will also streamline the application process by reducing the volume of material that must be provided to the Attorney-General when seeking consent to request an interim control order and will extend the time for obtaining the Attorney-General's consent when making an urgent request to an issuing court without first obtaining the Attorney-General's consent.

Finally, the implementation of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security's recommendation will require the Attorney-General to advise the committee before amending a regulation that lists a terror organisation by adding an alias or removing a former name and to allow the committee to review any proposed change during the disallowable period. I believe, as do other members of the government, that this legislation is necessary to keep us safe and to provide our troops on the ground with the resources they need to do the job they have been tasked with. As such, I indicate my full support for it and I commend it to the House.

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