Kerry Nettle (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The Greens oppose schedule 1 in the following terms:

(1)    Schedule 1, page 3 (line 2) to page 85 (line 6), TO BE OPPOSED.

The purpose of this amendment is to oppose the part of the legislation that deals with controlled operations. I spoke about this matter to a limited extent in my second reading debate speech. The Greens understand that in some circumstances the police must work undercover, and this often involves collaboration with a whole range of people involved in criminal activity. It is clear, however, that such activity has a great risk of contributing to corruption and abuse. For those reasons, and to ensure public confidence, it is very important that such undercover work or controlled operations are tightly regulated and that the police involved are accountable. We are concerned that the section of this bill that deals with controlled operations waters down and removes some of the important mechanisms of accountability that exist for such controlled operations. That is why we are moving the Australian Greens amendment.

I have a couple of questions for the minister about controlled operations, in particular the use of foreign intelligence officers in controlled operations and the immunities that are provided for foreign intelligence officers in these operations. Can the minister explain what the purpose is of foreign intelligence officers being able to use assumed identities as part of these controlled operations and whether or not foreign intelligence officers and their agencies would therefore be participating in controlled operations with the Australian Federal Police? Is the minister able to provide any more details about which agencies and which countries? In particular, is it intended that these powers be put in place in order to prepare for APEC, which will occur in Sydney in September?