Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

Labor opposes these amendments. The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security recommended that the sunset date for the declared area provisions be extended to 7 September 2024 and that the intelligence and security committee be empowered to conduct a review of those powers at any time prior to that date. This bill implements both of those recommendations. By contrast, the amendments circulated by Senator Thorpe and moved by Senator Siewert would provide for a more limited extension of the sunset date in relation to the declared area provisions, to 7 December 2022, and require the intelligence and security committee to undertake a further review of those provisions by 7 June 2022.

Labor supports the position of the intelligence and security committee. The intelligence and security committee completed a review of the declared area provisions in February of this year. It is unnecessary and, given the extraordinary workload of the committee, inappropriate to require the committee to complete a further review by the middle of next year. In any event, I note that the bill, if passed, would enable the committee to commence a review of the declared area provisions at any time prior to 7 September 2024. In other words, the bill as drafted would empower the committee to complete a review within the time frame suggested by Senator Thorpe, but it would not require it.

Separately, the amendments circulated by Senator Thorpe would see the preventative detention order and the stop, search and seizure powers expire on 7 September 2021. We strongly oppose those amendments. The intelligence and security committee is currently undertaking a review of those powers. The whole purpose of that review is to evaluate the operation, effectiveness and implications of those powers. It would therefore be wholly inappropriate and defeat the purpose of that review for the parliament to allow the powers to expire while the review is ongoing. Instead, Labor supports the proposed extension of the sunset dates to 7 December 2022. This extension will ensure that the intelligence and security committee has sufficient time to complete its review prior to the powers sunsetting and that the government has sufficient time to work through and respond to any recommendations made by the committee.