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

On behalf of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, I present the following reports: A review of regulations relisting Islamic State East Asia as a terrorist organisation under the Criminal Code Act 1995 and the Advisory report on the Counter-Terrorism and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2023—Report, October 2023.

Reports made parliamentary papers in accordance with standing order 39(e).

by leave—On the first report, A review of regulations relisting Islamic State East Asia as a terrorist organisation under the Criminal Code Act 1995, which I present by statement from the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security: under the Criminal Code, regulations that specify an organisation as a terrorist organisation cease to have effect on the third anniversary of the day on which they took effect. Organisations can be relisted, provided that the minister responsible for the Australian Federal Police, currently the Attorney-General, is satisfied on reasonable grounds that the organisation continues, directly or indirectly, to engage in terrorism or advocate for the doing of a terrorist act.

The effect of being listed as a terrorist organisation under the Criminal Code is to trigger the application of offences for supporting or associating with the organisation in specified ways, such as being a member of, recruiting for or providing funding for it. Section 102.1A of the Criminal Code provides that the committee may review a regulation that lists or relists an organisation as a terrorist organisation and report its comments and recommendations to each house of the parliament before the end of the applicable 15-sitting-day disallowance period. This report serves this purpose and is being presented within the required period.

The regulation subject to this review relates to Islamic State East Asia. This organisation was first listed as a terrorist organisation in 2017 and was relisted in September 2020. The present regulation relists it for a further three-year period from 4 September 2023. In determining whether the relisting of this organisation should be supported, the committee reviewed the Attorney-General's explanatory statement and statement of reasons for relisting this organisation and other publicly available information. The committee also invited public submissions on the listing and received one submission from a member of the public.

In our deliberations the committee noted evidence that this organisation comprised several violent extremist factions merging under the Islamic East Asia banner. Islamic State East Asia first pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in December 2015 and has since reiterated its commitment to Islamic State in 2019 and 2022. The organisation promotes sectarian violence and targets those it labels as 'infidels' and those who do not agree with its interpretations of Islam. Since its relisting in 2020, 10 incidents of terrorist activity can be reliably attributed to Islamic State East Asia, with frequent and violent attacks against civilians, armed forces and the Philippines government—seeking to remove the elected government through violence. IS East Asia remains a deadly terrorist threat to the Philippines and a target destination for foreign terrorist fighters. IS East Asia is also listed as a terrorist organisation by the United Nations and many like-minded countries, including New Zealand, Canada and the United States.

The Australian government assessment is that Islamic State East Asia continues to be directly or indirectly engaging in preparing, planning, assisting in or undertaking terrorist activities that involve threats to human life and serious damage to property. Based on the evidence provided, the committee is satisfied with the relisting processes and considers that they have been followed appropriately for this organisation. The committee supports the relisting of IS East Asia as a terrorist organisation under division 102 of the Criminal Code in order to protect Australians and Australia's interests and finds no reason to disallow the regulation. I commend this report to the parliament.

On behalf of the PJCIS I have also presented the committee's report on the Advisory report on the Counter-Terrorism and Other Legislation Amendment Bill. This bill would extend the operation of police counterterrorism powers in the Crimes Act and the Criminal Code for a further three years, to December 2026. These powers relate to the following: authority to stop, question and search persons and seize items in Commonwealth places, including in prescribed security zones; the control order regime; and the preventive detention order regime. The bill would impact prescribed security zones, including requiring the minister to consider particular matters before declaring a zone and requiring notification of relevant oversight bodies when a zone is declared; stop and search powers, implementing a requirement on police to inform subjects of their rights to make a complaint; control orders, including amending the issuing authority to being only the Federal Court of Australia and requiring new consideration by the court before issuing an interim control order; preventive detention orders, allowing them to be issued only by superior court judges; and the AFP minister's publicly reporting on continuing detention orders.

In addition the bill proposes to extend the operation of the offence of unauthorised disclosure of information by current and former Commonwealth officers by 12 months, to December 2024, to allow for the finalisation of the government's review of Commonwealth secrecy provisions. This bill would implement 10 of the recommendations from the committee's 2021 review of police powers, which is just one of the reviews undertaken by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security in its long history of reviewing the necessity and proportionality of these extraordinary powers designed to keep Australians safe from the enduring threat of terrorism.

The committee considered carefully the current terrorism threat environment and noted the number of individuals that have been arrested for terrorism offences this year to date, as well as the moderation of religiously motivated violent extremism and the ongoing rise of ideologically motivated violent extremism. The committee particularly noted advice from security agencies that the type of terrorist activity likely to be undertaken has shifted from a large-scale event to an individual or small group attack that could occur with little or no warning. The committee also noted the views of a number of submitters that some of these extraordinary powers were no longer relevant and should sunset in December this year. However, the committee weighed this against the current threat of terrorism and supported the extension of the sunset powers in the bill for a further three years.

In this regard, I also note the committee is presently undertaking a review of post-sentence control orders and extended supervision orders for terrorist offenders, which is relevant to some of the provisions in this bill. The three-year extension of the powers covered by this bill will allow time for the committee to complete that important review and for the government to respond.

During its inquiry the committee received evidence from the Attorney-General's Department, providing proposed amendments to the bill to establish a post-entry warrant regime, which would require a police officer to seek authorisation after exercising warrantless entry powers. Those powers currently exist, but this amendment would ensure that the AFP or the police officer seeking authorisation does so after exercising the warrantless powers that they currently have. This was recommended by the committee in its 2021 report. The committee supports the introduction of such a warrant scheme. The committee also supports the other measures in the bill to implement recommendations made by the committee and by others. The committee therefore recommends that the bill be passed by parliament.

In conclusion, I extend my thanks to all the members and colleagues on the committee for their hard work on this. On behalf of the committee I thank the secretariat, who worked very hard and very diligently on these reports, and I thank all of those who participated in the inquiry, gave public statements as witnesses and made submissions in such a very short time frame. I thank them for their contributions. I commend this report to the House.