Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the chair of the PJCIS for his warm and generous remarks about the bipartisan nature we try to strive for on the PJCIS, because he's right. On this I agree with him—that we really do try to leave our political guns at the door when we walk into those meeting rooms, because there is no greater responsibility that anybody has in this place, whether in opposition or in government, than to protect the Australian people and our homeland.

I've had the privilege of being the deputy chair of the PJCIS for two years, and in that time we've undertaken 22 inquiries. I believe we still have nine inquiries underway, although that seems a somewhat small list compared with what we've had in recent times. I chaired many committees when we were in government, and by far this committee has the highest-tempo work rate of any committee I have worked on. That is an indication of the nature of the fast pace at which our intelligence agencies continuously have to operate. That very fast pace means that the committee that oversees our intelligence agencies therefore also has to work at that pace.

In those two years that I've been on the intelligence and security committee I've come to appreciate more than ever the vital role that our intelligence agencies and our intelligence personnel play in protecting Australians and securing their future. On 25 April we as a nation rightly stop to recognise and commemorate our ADF veterans, more than 103,000 of whom paid the ultimate sacrifice. But rarely do we hear about our intelligence agencies and their personnel and the work they do both domestically and internationally to keep us safe. I think it behoves us all to stop, pause and reflect on the sacrifices our intelligence agencies make, as well as our DFAT staff.

I've had the privilege of visiting quite a number of our missions overseas. Let me tell you, they're not all like what you might see in Washington DC or in the movies. Some of the conditions in which our DFAT staff operate are very, very austere and, dare I say, very, very dangerous. We cannot thank those personnel—our foreign intelligence services and our domestic intelligence services—enough. I think it really is important that we don't just recognise our veterans who pull on our military uniforms, but we should be recognising them as well.

This National Security Legislation Amendment (Comprehensive Review and Other Measures No. 3) Bill 2023 goes some way to supporting our intelligence agencies and their personnel in response to some of the recommendations from the Comprehensive review of the legal framework of the national intelligence community report—which was an absolutely huge body of work that was done by Dennis Richardson. It aims to protect the identities of staff of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service, the Australian Signals Directorate and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation. It further strengthens Australia's security assessment framework. It addresses issues related to security vetting and security clearance related activities, particularly around the protection of intelligence information and documents, and it delineates clear authorisation processes for certain intelligence activities.

Our intelligence and law enforcement personnel are among the bravest and most patriotic Australians. They put themselves in harm's way to protect Australians and our interests. As I remarked earlier, they apply themselves to challenging and critical work, often in the most dangerous and high-tempo environments. They're linguists, they're translators, they're cryptographers, they're cybersecurity professionals, they'reoperatives, they're operational staff, they're analysts and they're accountants. They're ordinary men and women who love their country and want to safeguard it long into the future.

They are people like James Arnold, whose 34 years in the intelligence field saw him become a subject matter expert in counterterrorism intelligence; like Ellen Grace, Ailsa Hale and Coral Hinds—members of the 'Garage Girls'—who worked with the Australian Women's Army Service and the Central Bureau in Brisbane deciphering and communicating vital intelligence signals in support of Allied forces across the Pacific; and like Dr John Moss, whose three decades of service in financial and criminal intelligence has allowed Commonwealth law enforcement and intelligence agencies to prevent and disrupt the financing of terror, money laundering and serious crime. These five courageous and talented Australians are recent recipients of Australian Intelligence Medals and have been honoured for their distinguished service to the national intelligence community and to the security of our country.

The work of so many of our intelligence personnel goes unnoticed, unrecognised and unreported, and the fact is that the vast bulk of our intelligence agency personnel wouldn't have it any other way. Every day their work goes unreported is another day that Australians have been kept safe from the threats beyond our waters and within our borders. Every day that we enjoy our freedom, democracy and security is a testament to their hard work and their bravery.

When you walk along the beach of Buddina, you can thank our intelligence defence personnel and our first responders. When you swim at the Currimundi Lake, you can thank our intelligence and defence personnel and our first responders. When you bike through Beerwah, meander through Maleny and Montville, and play with the kids at the playground in Palm View, you can thank our intelligence and defence personnel and our first responders. We would not be the safe, strong and secure nation that we are without them. On behalf of the people of Fisher, I want to thank the men and women of the national intelligence community for their continued service to the Commonwealth of Australia. We can never say thank you enough.

This bill aims to improve employment arrangements and associated protections for current and former employees of ASIO, ASIO affiliates, ASIS and the Australian Signals Directorate. The bill will also consolidate several existing secrecy offences as they relate to ASIO, ASIS, the Australian Geospatial-Intelligence Organisation and the Defence Intelligence Organisation. Importantly, records which identify ASIO or ASIS agents, employees, affiliates and other operatives will be made exempt under the Archives Act.

It also aims to respond to the rapidly advancing digital and media landscape by modernising the publication offence under the ASIO Act which criminalises the publication of the identity of any current or former ASIO employee or affiliate. At present, the legislation explicitly identifies newspaper, print publications, radio broadcast and television as methods which are outlawed. This amendment will remove those listed publication methods to accommodate shifting digital media and social media platforms. This would make section 92 of the ASIO Act reflective of the changes made to section 41 of the Intelligence Services Act, consistent with the other publication offences related to intelligence offences. By imposing a blanket ban rather than designated methods of publication, the amendment avoids any potential gap arising in the law which could see digital publication or some future method of publication exempted from prosecution.

The legislation will also enable the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Minister for Defence to authorise ASIS, ASD and AGO, the Australian Geospatial-Intelligence Organisation, to undertake activities relating to an Australian person who is likely to be involved in activities that are likely to be a threat to security before the Attorney-General gives his or her agreement to the authorisation. The authorisation will not take effect until the Attorney-General's agreement has been obtained, however. This comes after recommendation 2 of the comprehensive review, which recommended that the sequencing of steps required in the Intelligence Services Act's ministerial authorisation process be adjusted to enable the responsible minister to authorise a certain intelligence activity. The aim is to streamline ministerial processes to respond to the security threats more quickly. Intelligence must be accountable and agile. A more efficient process, which still meets the requisite checks and balances, is crucial as Australia combats growing threats to our national security and sovereignty, as we saw on Four Corners just last night. The legislation will remove the ability for a junior minister to exercise a power under the ASIO Act or the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act, reflecting the standard practice in authorising intelligence activities.

The legislation also aims to support quicker processing of non-prejudicial security clearance suitability assessments by permitting the Director-General of Security to delegate their power or function to furnish non-prejudicial security clearance suitability assessments. This amendment would maintain that the Director-General of Security could delegate a power or function under section 82D(1) to an ASIO employee or affiliate serving at an executive level or in a more senior role, so long as the application was for a prejudicial security clearance suitability assessment.

The bill then allows the director-general to delegate the power or function for non-prejudicial security clearance suitability assessments to an ASIO employee or affiliate who isn't necessarily in an executive level 1 position. This should allow ASIO to expeditiously complete those non-prejudicial security clearance assessments which have contributed to the significant backlog and delays that we've seen over the last several years. In 2022-23 alone, ASIO finalised 35,055 personnel security assessment referrals. Requiring an executive level officer or someone more senior to approve all of those inquiries only makes that process more complex and time-consuming.

For accountability purposes, the legislation requires that ASIO notify the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security where certain security clearance decisions and security clearance suitability assessments are not made or furnished within 12 months. This is not just a matter of meeting KPIs; it's about ensuring that our workforce across defence, intelligence, security, government and various areas of public administration is not unnecessarily delayed.

All in all, this third tranche of measures in response to the comprehensive review aims to modernise and streamline Australia's national intelligence capabilities. The reality is, of course, that our country has not been in a more challenging and precarious position since the end of World War II. The geopolitical pressures are significant, and they are complex. The aggressive and deep rooted nature of foreign interference, influence and espionage is becoming increasingly apparent, and Australia's ability to respond with defence, security and technological capabilities is simply not where it needs to be.

To that end, I want to acknowledge the remarks of the chair when he talked about the importance of this bill and our whole national intelligence community legislative architecture working in concert with each other to protect and keep safe Australia and our homeland. This is where the government, when it recently announced the National Defence Strategy a couple of weeks ago, is missing the point. I want to send a big shout-out to Senator Jim Molan, who led the charge for a national security strategy, because a national defence strategy is only one aspect of what should be a national security strategy. It's all well and good to have a defence strategy. It's all well and good to have some of the best kit for our ADF personnel. But what we need in this country is an all-encompassing, whole-of-government and, in fact, whole-of-society approach to the security of this nation, and Jim Molan led the charge for that when he was a senator in this place. The late great Senator Molan was an exponent of the importance of a national security strategy, one that encompassed not just government of all three tiers but industry, our critical infrastructure. Every element—communications, defence industry, all elements of our community—needs to be brought together to operate as one under a national security strategy to keep our country safe, and I implore the government to investigate it and implement it.

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