Sam Birrell (Nicholls, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the National Security Legislation Amendment (Comprehensive Review and Other Measures No. 3) Bill 2023. As has been pointed out by previous speakers, every day and often in the dark of night there are people working to protect Australians. Their work is often secret, unseen and, by a large part of the community, unacknowledged. The first and most important responsibility of any government is to keep Australians safe, and I want to start this address by acknowledging those men and women in the intelligence services who serve the interests of our nation and the safety of all Australians. Your work is appreciated and you are appreciated.

As, I think, the member for Fisher was saying, on Anzac Day we think about those men and women in uniform and the decisive battles that have been won in the name of freedom in the past and the kit, as he put it. We can think of the Spitfire, the frigate, the submarine and all of those sorts of things and of some of the big battles that we talk about. Also, in the history of conflicts such as World War II, we can look back at some of the intelligence victories that weren't acknowledged at the time, because they couldn't be, but were decisive in turning the nature of that conflict towards righteousness and freedom. An example of that is Operation Mincemeat, which I recommend people read about. It's a fascinating story. There was also the cracking of the Enigma code. In recent times there's also been some incredible work by our intelligence services which has resulted in the protection of Australians and the saving of Australian lives, and I want to acknowledge that.

The National Security Legislation Amendment (Comprehensive Review and Other Measures No. 3) Bill 2023 contains a number of provisions to amend the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Act 1979, the ASIO Act; the Intelligence Services Act 2001; the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979; and the Archives Act 1983. Those changes support our intelligence agencies by strengthening the protections around the identity of employees, improving the ability of ASIO to communicate information and providing additional protections for individuals by making the communication of certain information a prescribed administrative action. It increases the operational flexibility through updated approval processes for certain activities, and it clarifies the provisions relating to certain intelligence activities and can allow for quicker processing of non-prejudicial security clearance suitability assessments.

A lot of these changes come from the recommendations of the Richardson review. The Richardson review was a comprehensive review of the legal framework of our national intelligence community, commissioned by the former coalition government. Former Secretary of the Department of Defence Dennis Richardson AC released the unclassified version of his report in 2020. In its response, the coalition government agreed with the 12 recommendations that are addressed in this bill, but this bill, I acknowledge, goes further. It includes issues that were not addressed in the Richardson review, and these are clarifying amendments that support the review recommendations. On the face of it they are sensible measures that align with the broad intent of the bill. Any legislation relating to our intelligence services tries to balance the necessary transparency that we have in a democratic system of government with security operations that, by their very nature, are not always transparent. I think this bill does a good job, as previous speakers have said, of trying to ensure that balance.

I'd also like to thank the PJCIS for their work in making some recommendations in relation to this legislation. I think it's very heartening to see that, on an issue such as this, we come into this place and debate issues, as we need to—that's the nature of democracy. When it comes to the security of Australia and how we structure our intelligence arrangements, it is essential that the parties of government in particular work together in the common interest, and I think we saw that with the chair and deputy chair—the member for Wills and the member for Fisher—and the other members of that committee. I'd just emphasise that, whilst crossbench members can make positive contributions to the debate in this country, these critical activities need to be agreed on and worked on by parties of government, because those are the people who are going to be responsible for this at some point. I just make that point.

There are actors in the world who would do us harm. I think it's critically important that we work together as a parliament to make sure that we have arrangements, particularly in relation to intelligence gathering, counterterrorism and all the other important work that goes on within the intelligence communities and the intelligence agencies, that are supported by this place. If we support those who work in those industries, we are supporting our fellow Australian citizens to feel and be safe in a world that is increasingly not safe. On that note, I commend this bill to the House and, again, thank the PJCIS for their work.

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