Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on the G20 (Safety and Security) Complementary Bill 2014. As honourable members are aware, the bill clarifies the powers of police officers and appointed persons to ensure safety and security at the Brisbane Airport during the G20 meeting. Of course, the powers of the Queensland Police Service during the event have been determined under Queensland's legislation, but the Commonwealth legislation is required because of the airport, which is a Commonwealth jurisdiction.

I have spoken in this place previously about how important it is that the G20 meeting is being held in Brisbane this year. Engagement with the global economy via the G20 is one of the proudest legacies of the former Labor government. I want to pay tribute to Prime Minister Gillard in particular, to former Treasurer Swan and to former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd for the way they conducted our global engagement in the economy, particularly for winning the rights to host the meeting that the whole world will be watching. It is such a crucial meeting. It was by working with the world's 20 largest economies that Australia was able to stare down the worst of the global recession and make it out the other side with three AAA credit ratings in tow. The G20 not only sets the agenda for the biggest economies on earth; it also provides leadership in addressing economic issues that matter to all countries, whether they are members of the G20 or nonmembers.

Attracting the G20 to Brisbane was a key achievement of the former government. For Brisbane, the opportunity to host the world's most important economic forum is a testament to the evolution of Brisbane and the entire south-east corner of Queensland, including my home city of Logan City, into the cosmopolitan metropolises that they are today. It is probably not since the Commonwealth Games in 1982 that Brisbane has hosted an event attracting so much of the world's attention. With this event come substantial opportunities for local residents and for local businesses of all sizes. If you walk through the Brisbane CBD at the moment, you will see plenty of signs of preparation for the G20 leaders meeting in November. Expansion of several major Brisbane hotels is currently underway as the city prepares itself for the influx of approximately 7,000 foreign leaders, staff and media representatives. This has provided Brisbane with employment opportunities and it has provided businesses with opportunities for growth. When the G20 and associated media come to Brisbane in November, so will the chance to show off to the world the fruits of our labour and planning over the last few years.

The G20 also brings substantial volunteering opportunities for Queenslanders. I want to give a big rap to a local man in my electorate, Wayne Ernst. He is a friend of mine from Woodridge, right in the middle of my electorate. He came into the office a couple of weeks ago asking for help with an application to volunteer at the G20 in Brisbane. Wayne is a great fellow. He has a disability but he has got many years of experience as a truck driver, and he was really enthusiastic about getting involved to give back to his community. In the office, we helped Wayne put together a resume and an application to volunteer at the G20 as a transport assistant. The last I heard of it, Wayne has secured an interview with Volunteering Queensland for the G20. Everyone in our office really hopes he gets the opportunity to help out. They would not have a better volunteer. The G20 is a great chance for volunteers to get involved, so I would sincerely encourage interested Brisbanites and Logan City-ites to help out.

Australia has a huge opportunity this year to set the economic agenda for the international community. I have written and spoken in the past about the need to put multilateral trade on the agenda of the G20 and to build on the progress that has happened bilaterally so that we get some proper progress multilaterally as well. The G20 could be used as a chance to take advantage of this progress in other parts of the trade agenda and to sustain the momentum generated by the Trade Facilitation Agreement, which was concluded in Bali in December last year. At the G20 in November, Australia could make a big mark on developing this work program and progressing the critically important elements of Doha.

But it is not just in trade that Australia can make a mark on the world's economic agenda. I have spoken in the past about the need for Australia to formulate a response to the trends of rapid technological advance, globalisation of the workforce and the rise of intergenerational disadvantage. I think there is a big opportunity at the G20 in Brisbane to deal with some of these big issues that are impacting on our economy, and not just the day-to-day or year-to-year aspects of budgeting or the growth agenda.

The 2014 G20 agenda, as announced by the Minister for Foreign Affairs in December last year, needs to be tempered in the light of these modern economic realities, these big new pressures in the global economy. The foreign minister singled out infrastructure and tax avoidance as two particular focus areas for the G20. I believe that this theme needs to be developed further into the notion of inclusive growth—not just growth but what type of growth we want in the 20 biggest economies and beyond so that, as economies grow, they grow together.

On infrastructure, we need to find ways for the world to prioritise productive and inclusive infrastructure so as to achieve economic growth. That includes things like state of the art broadband. We cannot just get into a situation of building old-world infrastructure and not paying attention to the new-world infrastructure that we need—things like the technological advances that the NBN would provide in Australia. The same goes for public transport. We need to make sure that we do not drop the ball on public transport. It was disappointing last night to see in the budget that the government does not seem to care about public transport. Right around the world, the biggest economies need to make sure that we are easing congestion by building public transport infrastructure.

The last area is tax evasion. We do need to make sure that companies around the world are not profit shifting in a way that enables them to avoid tax. We certainly have that issue here in Australia, and it is important that all countries work together so that we get a robust regime, so that profit shifting is minimised and so that companies pay tax in the country where they are making the money.

I have a lot of confidence in Australia's ability to put on a big event like G20 in Brisbane and have it go successfully. A lot of my confidence comes from knowing that the officials working on this in Treasury, the Prime Minister's department and DFAT are some of the best public servants we have. They have a lot of experience with the G20 in particular, and I know they will work very hard to make Australia proud of all the arrangements for this meeting.

There is a real need to get the policy environment right to ensure the safety and security of all the participants at the G20 this year, and that is part of what this legislation is about. With a large number of prominent world leaders in attendance, there is a need for police to be given some extra powers during the course of the event. The Queensland act performs most of this role, as I said before, and we are now talking largely about the arrangements at Brisbane Airport. It is important when drafting this kind of legislation to make sure we draw the correct line between ensuring the safety of our visitors and maintaining the civil liberties of our citizens. It is likely that there will be some inconvenience for people living and working in the Brisbane area. I am certain that any steps that can be taken to minimise this inconvenience will be taken by the organisers, and the benefits to the local area will far outweigh these temporary annoyances and inconveniences.

This legislation also includes a sunset clause, which means that the additional police powers cease on the day after the conclusion of the G20 conference.    Because of this, it is likely that we will see this legislation set for repeal on the first repeal day after the G20. Let us hope the government does not count this in their red tape bonfire next autumn.

In conclusion, the opposition will be supporting the passage of this legislation through the parliament as we want to ensure a safe and successful G20 in Brisbane this November. I think all sides of the parliament have an interest in seeing the G20 delivered successfully, and I am sure that whatever work needs to be done in a bipartisan way between all sides of politics will get done. We will happily work with the government to make sure this meeting is delivered successfully. There is a lot at stake, there is a lot to gain and it is a big opportunity for Australia and for Brisbane, and we want it to go well. I commend this bill to the House and I look forward to the big event, the leaders meeting, in November this year.

Jane Prentice (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In preparation for Australia's hosting of the G20, the G20 (Safety and Security) Complementary Bill 2014 will ensure that the Queensland G20 Act validly applies to Commonwealth places at the Brisbane Airport. Brisbane's rapidly growing global reputation as a city of opportunity—indeed, as Bernard Salt said, 'the aspirational capital of Australia'—was affirmed by its selection as the host of the 2014 G20 Leaders Summit, the principal forum for international economic cooperation and decision-making. Over the days of the event, Brisbane will become the capital city of the world, with leaders from the world's most influential economies gathering in our city.

Approximately 4,000 delegates and 3,000 domestic and international media will converge on the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre for the summit—they will be welcomed and won over by Australia's new-world city. Brisbane is an economic powerhouse of the Asia-Pacific region, with innovation and an entrepreneurial heart. It is a city that draws world leaders, international business and investment. It has defied the recent global downturn, and is a leader of Australia's economic growth.

Brisbane offers a potent combination of a business-friendly, stable political environment and a young, educated, multicultural society with stunning surroundings, cultural sophistication and enviable climate. Brisbane is a magnet to growth industries as well as to major events like the G20 and is a home to internationally renowned scientists and research centres. Brisbane ranked in the top 7 most liveable cities in the world at the prestigious Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize and has been named one of the top 10 Asian cities of the future by the London Financial Times fDi magazine. A world-class destination for conferences and business events, with first-rate facilities, event services and venues, Brisbane has benefited enormously from ongoing investment in multimillion-dollar infrastructure.

Brisbane will become the ninth host city of the G20 Leaders Summit, joining the elite ranks of cities such as London, Toronto and Seoul. The event brings together leaders and finance ministers from countries which account for more than 85 per cent of global economic output. They will be joined by key officials from the United Nations, the World Bank, the World Trade Organisation and the International Monetary Fund. The many attractions of Brisbane include rich cultural and leisure opportunities, friendly locals, affordability, accessibility, alfresco dining and a breathtaking natural backdrop of national parks and island escapes in the picturesque Moreton Bay. With a diversified economy that embraces, rather than depends on, the mining industry, Brisbane is well placed to build on its other strengths in education, tourism, retail, professional services, construction, and IT.

The G20 is an important development in Brisbane's history, and the November 2014 summit will have a long-lasting legacy as important as other game-changing events for the city, such as the Commonwealth Games and Expo '88. Brisbane is already well advanced in leveraging the G20 summit to help position the city as a strong investment, conventions and study destination. The 'Choose Brisbane' campaign, launched in March 2013 by Lord Mayor Graham Quirk, uses G20 images and messages to remind business decision-makers in Asia and Europe that Brisbane is a city significant enough to host the world's leaders. The next phase of the campaign, already seen by two million people in Asia, was launched in Hong Kong in September last year. Research conducted by the Colmar Brunton group shows the campaign has been highly successful in generating positive perceptions of Brisbane in Asia. The campaign was seen by nearly half of all business decision-makers surveyed in Hong Kong. For those who saw the campaign, the likelihood of them considering Brisbane as an investment opportunity doubled from 24 per cent to 47 per cent.

As the G20 summit draws closer, Brisbane Marketing will continue campaigns and messaging to evolve Brisbane's positioning as a serious player in the Asia-Pacific. The campaign was rolled out to Europe in June and to China in September. Marketing has been seen by more than 160 million people around the world online, as well as on billboards and in print—more than 3,000 billboards around the world, and online and print advertising in high-profile business publications. This advertising, with the words 'Brisbane: The 2014 G20 Host City', features a number of 'heroes', including US President Barack Obama and other world leaders; cervical cancer vaccine pioneer Professor Ian Frazer; Brisbane artist Michael Zavros; Shanghai news anchor and Asia Pacific Screen Awards host Chen Lei; BG Group's Catherine Tanna; Phil Larsen of Halfbrick Studios, the developer of the highly-successful Fruit Ninja app; as well as Chinese-American artist Cai Guo-Qiang.

Almost 60,000 people have visited the Choose Brisbane website. This is Brisbane's opportunity to showcase itself as the closest Australian capital city on the eastern seaboard to Asia, ideally placed to become an economic powerhouse in the region. The economic benefits to the city are expected to run into the hundreds of millions of dollars, with an upsurge in trade for local shops, hotels and restaurants along with increased international media coverage of Brisbane. Brisbane is working to ensure the anticipated 3,000 visiting media will be equipped with information to maximise media coverage and return visits by family and friends and is hosting pre- and post-summit media familiarisations to get stories about our city published worldwide. International experience from previous summits suggests Brisbane can expect an upsurge in interest as an international business and meetings destination as a result of the G20.

Other benefits arising from the city's improved international image are expected to include more foreign investment and increased tourism as a result of hosting the summit. Lord Mayor Graham Quirk stated that networking between countries provides new business and research collaborations which can generate innovation, ideas and drive the research agenda for years to come. In Brisbane's case, this could be in areas such as education, the digital economy, hotel development, and the event management and convention business. Already an extra 20 conferences have been booked for Brisbane this year by comparison to 2013, adding an extra $50 million to the city's economic worth.

In 2010 the University of Toronto measured the benefits of previous G20 and G8 conferences. They found that the host city received benefits in the short-term from tourism, accommodation, plane fares and 'advertising'—both written stories and direct advertising. In the longer term, the economic benefit comes from business investment. The authors of the study, Jenilee Guebert and Shamir Tanna, from the University of Toronto found the economic benefits were bigger for the cities with a lower international profile. In general the benefits are much greater for the smaller communities and cities that lack the global visibility and infrastructure that the capital cities of the past several centuries have developed.

Brisbane already plans to boost its $114 billion economy to a $217 billion economy by 2031 and will be able to link trade benefits from the G20 conference to its biennial Asia Pacific Cities Summit, which it last hosted in 2011 and will again in 2015. The global spotlight will be on Brisbane during the G20 Leaders Summit and the city is ready to shine. I commend this bill to the House and extend a warm welcome to Brisbane to all delegates.

Michael Danby (Melbourne Ports, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In my comments today about the G20 (Safety and Security) Complementary Bill 2014 it is worth remembering some of the history and context of this bill. Prime Minister Gillard won a place for Australia at the United Nations Security Council, despite the doubts and indecision of her then foreign minister. Former Prime Minister Rudd played a key role in making the G20 the eminent international forum that it has become and making Australia part of it. It is a forum that is probably more important even than the G8 these days—or the G7 as it is going to become.

The summit taking place in Brisbane will be the most significant meeting of world leaders in Australia. This important meeting demands extra security measures, which is why the opposition is supporting this bill. The bill provides a mechanism for dealing with any overlap between provisions in the Queensland act G20 (Safety and Security) Act 2013 and existing Commonwealth legislation. Importantly, the powers are exercisable for a limited period and apply only with respect to certain specified locations, including the Brisbane Airport, which is a Commonwealth property.

The G20 brings world leaders to Australia, and Australia will be responsible for their security. Our planning and our capability for the G20 and Australia's ongoing security capability rely extensively on Australia's security services. Above all, those security services performing their tasks and security for this event will primarily provide that via the use of electronic surveillance, interception and the monitoring tools we know that our security services use. The G20 will not only be protected by some Queensland copper and his dog sweating through the venue before the arrival of the VIPs; the careful intelligence work of our security services will also be the key to it. Of course, it is important to keep our security agencies accountable by ensuring the balance between our security and our liberty when it comes to information gathered about Australian citizens or in Australia. In the former government's examination of how we might do this, I was a strong advocate of data breach legislation that would give citizens the right to individually take legal action against government, or more likely commercial organisations, that improperly access an individual's private data.

In evaluating how Australia is to keep its enviable record of not having a successful terrorist attack on mainland Australia since 9/11 and keeping the G20 safe, we need to remember that the Australian intelligence services are amongst the most closely scrutinised, well governed and well administered in the world. The main checks that currently exist to ensure these services act with appropriate considerations include the ombudsman; the Administrative Appeals Tribunal; the Parliamentary Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence and Security, which I had the honour of being a member of; ministers and departmental secretaries; the Chief of the Defence Force; and the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, who oversights how these agencies perform. I might say that the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security is a nonpartisan committee. Rulings by Australia that organisations are terrorist organisations are not made by fiat of the Attorney-General but under a long-ago agreement by all parties and with due consideration of the expert advice that we get.

It was recently recommended that these organisations have dual objectives: to protect the privacy of communications and to enable interception of and access to communications in order to investigate serious crime and threats to national security—in other words, so that the activities of these agencies can be done without overstepping the parameters of their existing legislation, maintaining the privacy of those individuals or organisations who are not intended to come under notice.

Since Mr Snowden began leaking US intelligence secrets last year, there has been a great deal of criticism of the way electronic surveillance has been used to protect the citizens of Western countries. It is an important debate that we need to have about the merits of security versus the desire for e-privacy. In my view, there has been a hysterical debate including allegations of totalitarian style surveillance of citizens in the West. Of course, one does not need to have this dilemma. One can, as we have in Australia to date, both protect individuals' privacy and maintain the security of Australia.

The Financial Review today addresses the old report of October 2013 that the Australian Signals Directorate had offered to share information collected about ordinary Australians with intelligence partners. This allegation confused metadata collected by the ASD as part of its foreign intelligence gathering with domestic surveillance operations. Under the Intelligence Services Act, of course, the ASD is not permitted to intercept domestic communications unless it gets explicit ministerial approval.

In the adult debate about these important issues following the leaking of 100,000 secret documents by the now Russian-based Mr Snowden, President Obama ordered the creation of a Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies. One of the doyens of civil liberties in the United States, Professor Geoffrey Stone, joined that advisory group. Professor Stone started off very sceptical of these capabilities that will help protect us in Brisbane as well as, in an ongoing sense, around the world. He said that he had gone into it with severe doubts about the merits of these ideas but he came out after this review with the belief that the NSA 'operates with a high degree of integrity and a deep commitment to the rule of law'. Professor Stone also concluded that the NSA was being 'severely—and unfairly—demonised by its critics'. He said:

Rather than being a rogue agency that was running amok in disregard of the Constitution and laws of the United States, the NSA was doing its job.

That is very much my feeling about agencies here from my experience on the committee. Professor Stone further said:

… I approached my responsibilities as a member of the Review Group with great skepticism about the NSA. I am a long-time civil libertarian, a member of the National Advisory Council of the ACLU … I was skeptical … I came away from my work on the Review Group with a view of the NSA that I found quite surprising. Not only did I find that the NSA had helped to thwart numerous terrorist plots against the United States … since 9/11, but I also found that it is an organization that operates with a high degree of integrity and a deep commitment to the rule of law.

That is exactly my impression of the agencies working here.

Prior to the creation of the review group, there was a case brought by the American Civil Liberties Union against the NSA on the collection of telephony metadata. District Judge William Pauley's judgments are very interesting. He said:

There is no evidence that the Government has used any of the bulk telephony metadata it collected for any purpose other than investigating and disrupting terrorist attacks. While there have been unintentional violations of guidelines, those appear to stem from human error and the incredibly complex computer programs that support this vital tool. And once detected, these violations were self-reported and stopped. The bulk telephony metadata collection program is subject to executive and congressional oversight, as well as continual monitoring by a dedicated group of judges who sit on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

Pauley cited the NSA's inability to connect the telephone dots ahead of the September 11 terrorist attacks. He wrote:

[Al-Qaeda's plot] succeeded because conventional intelligence gathering could not detect diffuse filaments connecting al-Qaeda.

No doubt, the bulk telephony metadata collection program vacuums up information about virtually every telephone call to, from, or within the United States … That is by design, as it allows the NSA to detect relationships so attenuated and ephemeral they would otherwise escape notice. As the September 11th attacks demonstrate, the cost of missing such a thread can be horrific.

That is exactly what the pattern is here in Australia. The most important liberal voice in this debate of security versus privacy since the Snowden revelations is President Obama. Obama, of course, is a former civil rights attorney and lecturer in constitutional law. He says he has 'maintained a healthy scepticism towards our surveillance programs after becoming president'. Following the findings of the review group, he said:

Nothing in that initial review … and nothing that I have learned since, indicated that our intelligence community has sought to violate the law or is cavalier about the civil liberties of their fellow citizens ... To the contrary, in an extraordinarily difficult job ... the men and women of the … community ... consistently follow protocols designed to protect the privacy of ordinary people. They're not abusing authorities in order to listen to your private phone calls or read your emails.

Unfortunately, in Australia various assorted critics and occasional wild-eyed journalists have been the shrillest voices in this debate.

There is a need for public officials to explain to the public when undertaking events like the G20 in Brisbane how a democratic society can balance security and civil liberty. When the former government was examining the balance between security and liberty in relation to advances in electronic communication, I was a strong advocate of data-breach legislation that would give citizens the right to individually take legal action against government and more likely commercial organisations that accessed an individual's private data or, in the case of state interception, without judicial authorisation. The issue of commercial exploitation of people's data is something that is, in my view, the main game rather than any claims that there are any Australian state authorities that are abusing their powers.

Every day there are reports of Australian passport holders leaving to fight for jihadi or Hezbollah terrorists in Syria. We need to continue with the existing strict safeguards to allow our security services to access metadata so these individuals can continue to be monitored and their attacks prevented.

In conclusion, in special circumstances such as during the G20 conference, special measures are needed. But to maintain the security of our nation now and into the future, our security services need regulated surveillance powers. The NSA and its Australian equivalent, the ASD, does massive work for the common good. As The Financial Review editorial noted last Friday:

These agencies follow the rule of law, which means we do not have to choose between our security and our liberty. And if some accuse the US of hypocrisy by using the same snooping tactics as China, then well, since when did we object to democracies defending themselves against dictatorships? Edward Snowden and Julian Assange portray themselves as warriors defending the Internet realm of pure freedom. Instead they are dupes that have left us more exposed to a dark online world used by terrorists, dictators, warped loners, and criminal gangs who are far more likely to steal your personal data than any government agency.

It is not fair for political leadership to leave civil servants to defend their responsible actions conducted under the rule of law. It is up to us political leaders to state what these people are doing with our information and the experts doing the monitoring that they are working within the rule of rule, and that we keep a keen eye on these kinds of things via systems we have created such as the independent Inspector-General of Security and Intelligence. But if Australians are going to have this enviable record that I talked about of not having a successful terrorist attack on mainland Australia since September 11, we need to continue to keep this balanced approach that we have at the moment and not fall prey to some of the hysterical writings of Mr Snowden, Mr Assange and some of the 'Snowdenistas' who write for the Australian media.

Michael Keenan (Stirling, Liberal Party, Minister for Justice) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The government is proud to facilitate and support the passage of the G20 (Safety and Security) Complementary Bill. I thank all members for their contribution to this debate. I would particularly like to thank the members for Cowan and Ryan, who understand the importance of this bill to ensure security for this event. I would like to acknowledge the contribution to this debate of my shadow, the member for Batman, and also acknowledge the support of the opposition. I also acknowledge the contribution of the member for Melbourne Ports. I do not disagree with a lot of what he was saying, but he certainly used an enormous amount of latitude considering that this bill is really an administrative bill, making sure that the Commonwealth and the Queensland laws align in relation to the G20.

Unfortunately the sense that both the government and the opposition brought to this bill has not been shared by the Greens. Unfortunately that is typical, as the Deputy Speaker will well know. I understand that the Greens have indicated that they will vote against this bill in the Senate, which is really quite extraordinary considering that this bill simply makes sure that our law enforcement personnel have the appropriate powers available to them to do their job.

The G20 Leaders Summit is the most important gathering of leaders in Australia. It is a privilege for Australia to be hosting such a gathering of leaders, and it will put Australia within the world spotlight. To suggest that somehow law enforcement personnel should not have access to the powers provided for in the Queensland G20 legislation at a facility as important as Brisbane Airport is quite ludicrous. I hope that the Greens reconsider their position and join the government and opposition in sensibly supporting this legislation.

The G20 Leaders Summit will be a forum for conversations that will shape the course of the global economy in coming years. Hosting an event of this magnitude brings with it great responsibility. The Queensland government has enacted legislation to give police and other authorised persons the powers they will need during the G20 events in Queensland. Those powers are necessary and proportionate to the important task of ensuring the safety and security of our distinguished guests and of course to also protect the public. The bill will ensure that those powers are clear and unambiguous when it comes to Commonwealth places. It will clarify the interaction between Queensland G20 legislation and Commonwealth aviation legislation, which will both apply at Brisbane airport during the G20 Leaders Summit. Brisbane Airport will be the key gateway for our guests as they arrive and depart for the G20 summit. Security arrangements for the event and, in particular, at Brisbane Airport, are paramount. The government is taking all necessary steps to maximise the effectiveness of these security arrangements, and our law enforcement and security agencies stand ready to meet this challenge.

It is vitally important when we are hosting an event of the magnitude of the G20, which will see the world's most powerful people be hosted in Australia, that we provide appropriate security arrangements to guarantee not only the governments that are sending their heads of government to Australia but also the Australian public and the Queensland public that the Australian government and the Queensland government are going to be working in parallel to ensure the safety of the event. It is a very important event for Australia. Held in November this year, it will be a significant event in our national life. I therefore commend this bill to the House as a sensible measure to ensure that the safety and security of this event will proceed without any undue problems.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

Ordered that this bill be reported to the House without amendment.

Federation Chamber adjourned at 12:24