George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

The topics I was asked by the Prime Minister to consider were: the adequacy and effectiveness of the espionage and treason offences under the Criminal Code and the officials secrets offences under the Crimes Act; the merit of creating specific foreign interference offences within the Criminal Code; the sufficiency of relevant international frameworks; and any complementary provisions that may strengthen our agency's ability to investigate and prosecute acts of espionage and foreign interference. In these sittings the government will introduce legislation arising from that review, including legislation which comprehensively revises our espionage, sabotage, treason and secrecy offences and introduces a new category of offences criminalising certain acts of covert foreign interference.