Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security has today handed down a bipartisan report recommending the passage of the Crimes Legislation Amendment (Police Powers at Airports) Bill 2018. A number of recommendations have been made to improve the bill and make it stronger and more effective. Those recommendations, if implemented, would also make it clear that the new powers cannot be used to interfere with the right to peaceful assembly.

If legislation reflecting these bipartisan recommendations is presented by the government and passed by the parliament, the rules governing the powers of police at airports around Australia will be unified for the first time and strengthened. Police constables and protective service officers will have the power to direct a person to move on from airport premises or to prevent a person from taking a specified flight when that person is reasonably suspected to have committed, be committing or be intending to commit an offence punishable by 12 months imprisonment or more, or if it is necessary to safeguard aviation security. It also expands the existing power that constables have to direct a person to produce evidence of their identity in specified circumstances.

Labor is absolutely dedicated to giving enforcement and security agencies the powers they need to keep Australians safe. Labor has always taken a bipartisan approach to national security matters and will continue to do so even as the government continually tries to trash that approach. We have helped to make more than 500 amendments to national security bills since 2013. Every one of those has made our laws stronger and more effective. Today's report shows that the bipartisan process of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security remains intact. Labor will do all it can to uphold the vital role of the committee while the government descends into hysterical attacks.

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