Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The Office of National Intelligence Bill 2018 and the Office of National Intelligence (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2018 relate to the Office of National Intelligence, which is part of Australia's security apparatus. We've seen multiple pieces of legislation come before this parliament in recent years that amend acts governing the operation of the intelligence apparatus in this country. One very big change we've seen is the consolidation of power into the new Department of Home Affairs, which—shamefully—Labor is yet to announce that it will dismantle when it wins government in six years time. I urge the Labor Party to have a close look at this and have a very good think about whether they want to be a party that goes down in history as maintaining the disgraceful arrangements that have been created whereby one minister has the level of power that home affairs minister Peter Dutton currently has in this country.

As I said, we've seen numerous pieces of legislation in Australia recently that amend acts that govern the operation of our intelligence agencies or our intelligence sector. In fact, over 200 pieces of legislation have passed through state, territory and Commonwealth parliaments in the last couple of decades that erode fundamental rights and freedoms in our country. It's worth reminding people that Australia is the last liberal democracy in the world without a bill or charter of rights enshrined either in legislation or in a constitution. Unfortunately, it's the absence of such a bill or charter of rights that has allowed the parties, in the policy lock step that they are engaged in in this area, to continue to erode fundamental rights and freedoms.

The previous speaker, Senator McAllister, mentioned the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security and said that this is how these pieces of legislation ought to be dealt with. Well, no, that's wrong, because what happens behind the closed doors of the PJCIS is that the major parties, in policy lock step, are walking this country down the dangerous path towards a police state. That is what is happening in this country, and Labor are culpable for it as well as the Liberal-National Party.

Labor still do not have a policy of supporting a charter of rights or a bill of rights in Australia. When I see Mr Andrews, the Victorian Premier, come out and talk about how progressive Labor is, I just reflect on some of the things that we've seen happen this week. We've seen Labor vote with the Liberal-National Party to make it easier to put the Army onto Australian streets and use lethal force against Australian citizens. That's what we've seen happen this week. We've seen Labor refuse to commit to supporting a bill, notice of which has been given in the other place, to rescue the desperately ill children from Nauru—and I might remind Labor that it put most of them there in the first place, over 5½ years ago. We've seen Labor, just today, indicate its support for a piece of legislation which will throw many thousands of recent migrants who have arrived in this country onto the scrap heap by denying them access to Newstart for four years after they arrive in this country, a deal that has got the imprimatur of no-one other than Senator Hanson. Let's be clear about what we've seen here today. This so-called progressive party—