Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, I present two reports of the committee: Review of administration and expenditure: No. 11 and No. 12—Australian intelligence agencies, and Review of the listing of Boko Haram and the re-listing of the Islamic State.

The committee is required by the Intelligence Services Act to review the administration and expenditure of the agencies of the Australian intelligence community, and this report covers the financial years 2011-12 and 2012-13.

The committee received comprehensive submissions for both years and conducted private hearings with each of the agencies, the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security and the Australian National Audit Office. I am pleased to report that the committee was satisfied that agencies are currently overseeing their administration and expenditure effectively.

For a number of years now, the committee has monitored the impact of the efficiency dividend and other savings measures on agencies. In this review, the committee sought assurances that each agency continued to have the necessary resources to address and target Australia's national security priorities to the degree necessary to protect Australians against threats to national security.

Madam Speaker, the committee found that the ongoing impact of the efficiency dividend and other savings measures were placing increasing pressure on the AIC agencies. Since 2010, agencies have warned of the potential impact on operational capability. This was reiterated even more strongly in this review with the clear message that any further cuts will lead to capability reductions. For this reason, the committee has recommended that the government review the continued application of the efficiency dividend and other savings measures to the agencies comprising the Australian intelligence community. The committee considers particular consideration should be given to the cumulative impact of these measures on operational capacity, including optimal staffing levels, and the ongoing ability of agencies to protect Australia's national security.

Turning to the second report, the committee has reviewed the making of regulations to list Boko Haram and relist the Islamic State as terrorist organisations under the Criminal Code. For Boko Haram, this is the first time the group has been listed by the Australian government. The group has launched attacks of increasing violence and sophistication since 2009. In the period from 2011 and 2014, 29 terrorist attacks were claimed by or reliably attributed to Boko Haram. In addition to assassinations of political, military and religious figures, the group has increasingly targeted non-combatants, including attacks on schools, markets, churches, residential areas and bus interchanges, which have killed hundreds of civilians. The group has also turned to kidnapping, including the April 2014 kidnapping of more than 200 girls from a secondary school in Borno State. Listed as a terrorist organisation by the United Nations and other governments, the group is not engaged in any meaningful peace negotiations

Madam Speaker, as I reported in my oral statement to the House on 4 September, the committee fully supports the listing of Boko Haram as a terrorist organisation under the Criminal Code.

I now turn to IS. Known also as ISIL and ISIS, the Islamic State was relisted as a terrorist organisation by the government on 11 July 2014. In a statement on 29 June 2014, the group had announced:

Accordingly, the "Iraq and Sham" in the name of the Islamic State is henceforth removed from all official deliberations and communications, and the official name is the Islamic State from the date of this declaration.

The committee was informed that the listing reflects the expansion of the group's operating area and its announcement of an Islamic caliphate, but that the leadership, membership and methods of the group have not changed.

Described to the committee as "one of the world's deadliest and most active terrorist organisations", the Islamic State conducts daily attacks on security forces and civilians. In Iraq, the group aims to destroy public confidence and provoke widespread revolt against the government, as well as undermining efforts to contain the group. In Syria, its targets include the regime of Bashar al-Assad, some armed opposition groups, and Turkish and Kurdish militants.

The committee fully supports the relisting on the basis that the group continues to engage in and advocate terrorist attacks. The committee also maintains the view expressed in an earlier report that the strong links to Australia are a significant additional factor in the proscription of this group. We have heard that there are about 60 Australians fighting in Syria and Iraq, with about another 100 people in Australia believed to be providing active support. The committee therefore does not recommend disallowance of the regulation listing the Islamic State as a terrorist organisation under the Criminal Code.

Could I take this opportunity to thank all members of the committee for their participation in these two inquiries. I would also like to place on the record the support of the committee secretariat in helping to put these reports together. I commend the reports to the House.

Anthony Byrne (Holt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will be talking around three very comprehensive reports in the space of about five minutes. I would like to start my remarks by commending all the reports to the House, particularly those on the listing or relisting of the particular terrorist organisations. I also commend the committee secretary, Dr Anna Dacre; Julia Searle, the inquiry secretary; and Renee Toy, who was the researcher. I thank my fellow committee members, who worked in a bipartisan way to deliver a bipartisan and impartial report in challenging circumstances.

I specifically want to talk about and amplify the chair's concerns with respect to the relisting of the terrorist organisations and to point out that the reports on the review of the listing of Boko Haram for the first time and the review of the relisting of the Islamic State were conducted under the Criminal Code. I want to talk about Boko Haram briefly. The parliament joint committee has completed its review process for the listing of Boko Haram as a terrorist organisation for the first time in this country and the process for the relisting of the Islamic State as a terrorist organisation. The committee was satisfied, as the chair said, that the correct procedures were followed and the decisions to list Boko Haram and to relist Islamic State as terrorist organisations were appropriately made.

On the history of Boko Haram, it is a Salafist Islamic movement, largely based in Nigeria, where they intend to establish an Islamic state and implement sharia law upon the populace. There are allegations that Boko Haram has ties with both the al-Qaeda affiliate al-Qaeda in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb and al-Shabaab. The chair went into the statement of reasons for the listing of Boko Haram, which included the 29 terrorist attacks that were attributed to them between 2011 and 2014. They are also well known in Australia and around the world for the kidnapping of more than 200 girls from a secondary school in Borno state. They have released videos threatening further attacks and have advocated the perpetration of terrorist attacks. They have not engaged in substantive peace negotiations and they have now been listed as a terrorist organisation by the United Nations, Nigeria, Canada, New Zealand, the United States and the United Kingdom.

I would also like to comment on the Islamic State, as the chair also made comment on previously. The Islamic State has previously been listed, first in 2005 and then 2007, under a former name. As quoted from the report, the Australian government relisted the group under the name Islamic State on 11 July 2014. The listing as 'Islamic State' does not reflect a change in the leadership, membership or methods of the group but does reflect the expansion of its operating area and the announcement of an Islamic caliphate. The land claimed by the Islamic State extend from Aleppo in Syria to Diyala in Iraq, including Sunni dominated areas of both countries.

There was a very thorough process that we undertook in listing or relisting these organisations. I think it is important to put on the record—particularly given the listing of the Islamic State, as it now likes to call itself, although we do not accept the terrorist nomenclature that it uses to falsely establish its primacy in the region—that the public should be reassured with respect to the listing, particularly given what occurred with the raids conducted by our intelligence and security agencies in the past couple of days.

I would like to put on the record on behalf of the committee our thanks to both the security services and the intelligence services for the work they do. The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security occupies a very unique space in parliamentary and public life. It is subjected to comprehensive and classified briefings about intelligence agencies. From time to time that does go into operational activity. I can say with some measure of confidence, on behalf of the committee, that the work of the intelligence and security agencies, particularly in addressing the terrorist threat, is strong. The public should be reassured about the work that it is doing to deal with the current threat that it is dealing with. There has been a lot of community concern about what is transpiring in our community as a consequence of the raid. If there is one message I could put to the Australia people, they should be reassured in the quality and the value of our security agencies. They thwarted a terrorist attack on our soil, and I have full confidence in them continuing to do so in the future.

Debate adjourned.