Scott Ludlam (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I feel as though the minister just read a big bag of wet cement into the Hansard record. All I will do, I suppose, by way of response is read briefly one last time from the Law Council's submission, where they put to the committee:

The proposed changes will almost render meaningless the threshold test that must be met by ASIO in order to obtain a warrant or authorisation to collect intelligence under 27A and 27B. A warrant or authorisation will be able to be obtained to gather information about the activities of any person or group outside Australia whenever those activities are considered to be somehow relevant to Australia's national security, Australia's foreign relations or Australia's national economic well-being.

Even if it is accepted that the current definition and test need revision in light of the changing nature of threats to Australia, it does not follow that the new definition and test must necessarily be reframed in such broad terms.

And finally they say:

The new definition and test will afford the Minister and the agency almost unfettered discretion to determine when and how ASIO's powers may be used to gather information about people's activities, communications and relationships abroad.

And I think that pointed submission from the Law Council kicks a bit of a hole in what the minister just read in that was supposed to reassure us about the safeguard framework that has been built up in a cross-party way by this parliament, by state parliaments, by conservatives, by the Labor Party and by the Greens to safeguard against the undue use of power by clandestine agencies that this parliament has a limited oversight of. This is where we find ourselves. Chair, I will seek your advice about whether I should seek leave to move amendments (1), (2), (3) and (4) together or just (1), (2) and (3).