Penny Wright (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Collins. As I indicated at the outset of this, the questions that I was asking at this stage were actually about the recommendations of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security which have not been reflected in the government's amendments. That is why I am asking the questions—to get more clarification. They were issues that were fairly and squarely raised by that committee, and that is why I have been asking the questions. It is not helpful to not have the answers as we go. It might be, as Senator Ludlam indicated, that we have dealt with those, that I have the best answer that I can have, that I am as clear as possible on it and that we can move on. Hopefully, a lot of information will come from the Attorney-General later, and then there may be further questions that need to come out of that. So I think it is not a very efficient way to do this.

I am going to go to a question. The government amendments include changes to the Intelligence Services Act, relating to what matters the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security must review. The date set for this review is 7 March 2018. This was the date set by the Foreign Fighters Bill, which, among many of its significant changes, pushed out the date set for the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security to review ASIO's questioning and attention powers from January 2016 to March 2018. My first question is: on what basis was 7 March 2018 set as the date for review of these very serious provisions relating to the Intelligence Services Act and the matters that the PJCIS must review? What was the basis of that date being set?