Peter Khalil (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, I present the committee's Advisory report on the Defence Amendment (Safeguarding Australia's Military Secrets) Bill 2023.

Report made a parliamentary paper in accordance with standing order 39(e).

by leave—On behalf of the PJCIS, I present the committee's Advisory report on the Defence Amendment (Safeguarding Australia's Military Secrets) Bill 2023.

This bill is aimed to strengthen Australia's existing legislative provisions to control and prevent the export and transfer of sensitive Defence information to foreign militaries. It achieves this by creating an authorisation framework that regulates work performed by former Defence staff members—including both former ADF members and Defence Australian Public Service employees.

The bill will also apply to all Australian citizens or permanent residents seeking to provide training to foreign militaries or foreign government entities in relation to goods, software and technologies in part 1 of the Defence and Strategic Goods List; or training in relation to military tactics, techniques and procedures.

As part of its evidence to the committee, Defence provided the committee with a number of case studies that stated:

This Bill is an important step towards ensuring foreign actors cannot collect Defence secrets through the employment of former Defence personnel, or Australians with knowledge of and access to sensitive technology and military information.

Defence informed the committee that the bill complemented the Defence Trade Controls Amendment Bill to further strengthen Australia's export control framework by enhancing the protections around the supply of controlled goods and technology within and outside of Australia. The SAMS bill, as it's known in the acronym, also supports the export licence free environment between AUKUS partners, unlocking defence trade, innovation and collaboration. Together with the Defence Trade Controls Amendment Bill, the safeguarding Australia's military secrets bill—the SAMS bill—will meet the requirement to implement a standard of controls comparable to those of the United States to access the national exemption from US export control licensing requirements of the US Arms Export Control Act.

ASIO gave the committee its assessment of the threats to the Australian community in the area of Defence secrets, stating:

Hostile foreign states and their intelligence services are aggressively seeking secrets about Australia's defence capabilities, government decision-making, political parties, foreign policy, critical infrastructure, space technologies, academic and think tank research, medical advances, key export industries and personal information.

The committee's unanimous report recommended that the bill pass, and it made four recommendations for the government's consideration, including:

… assess the existing legislation and procedures and whether they sufficiently cover working or training for paramilitary organisations and militias by former defence personnel—

which is somewhat of a grey area—

… provide the Minister for Defence with the ability to determine by legislative instrument classes or categories of non-former Defence members that are not required to apply for an authorisation—for example, in cases where a company has been approved to provide goods under the Defence Export Control (DEC) arrangements …

…   …   …

… assess how existing legislation and procedures covering former National Intelligence Community officers and their work for foreign governments should be strengthened, and address the need for further legislation—

if necessary. Once passed, this bill will deal with the potential for former Defence staff members to reveal sensitive defence information and place Australia's national security at risk. In addition, it provide our allies with more confidence that securing sensitive military information is at the forefront of the Australian government's national security thinking and practice.

On behalf of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, I extend my thanks to those who participated in the inquiry by providing submissions and appearing at public hearings. I thank my colleagues, including the deputy chair, and all the members of the committee for their work on this particular report. It's extremely sensitive and extremely important, and the committee worked around the clock, given the time sensitivities and time constraints we were facing with respect to the need to introduce this bill to the parliament before the April recess. I extend my thanks to all committee members for their fine and hard work on this, and to the secretariat staff, who always work so hard and diligently under extreme circumstances—particularly with the PJCIS, with so many reports; there are some 14 inquiries we've got underway at the same time. There's an enormous amount of pressure on the secretariat as well as the committee members. I am very grateful for their efforts, and I thank them. I commend this report to the House.

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