David Van (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Independent National Security Legislation Monitor Amendment Bill 2021. The Morrison government's commitment to ensuring the safety and security of all Australians has been clearly demonstrated in the past fortnight with the range of legislative measures that have been placed before us and have been through this place. In the years since 2001, Australia's national security framework has had to undertake a number of robust transformations to evolve with the rapidly changing and complex security environment, as events over the past couple of weeks in Afghanistan have shown us.

The starting point of the action within Afghanistan was the terrorist attacks in 2001, the anniversary of which is coming up next week. It takes me back to that time. I was living in the United States during the September 11 attacks. It was a horrific time for both that nation and nations that share friendships with the US. With yesterday having been the 70th anniversary of the ANZUS treaty between the US and Australia, I think it's timely that we stop and reflect on the changes to the security of our nation and of all nations at this time.

As I said, in the years since 2001 Australia's national security framework has had to undertake a number of robust transformations to evolve with the rapidly changing and complex security environment. Significant advances have been made since 2001 to create greater interoperability between our various agencies and to ensure that we approach our national security framework with a holistic and all-encompassing approach. There is no doubt that the security of our nation is this government's and this parliament's highest priority. A robust national security and counterterrorism framework needs to ensure that our agencies have the powers they need to prevent terrorist attacks and combat those who seek to do us harm. As we know from various events, including some involving grey-zone tactics over recent years, those attacks aren't stopping. There may not have been, in recent times, examples of religious extremism, bombings in parts of Australia or other horrific acts of terrorism, but there has been an enormous amount of cyberactivity that's targeted Australia and Australians. So our agencies need to be able to protect us against all those that seek to do us harm.

The Independent National Security Legislation Monitor plays a vital role in Australia's overarching national security framework. It is responsible for regularly assessing Australia's national security and counterterrorism laws to ensure that they remain appropriate to the current threat environment, no matter how evolving that threat environment can be, and that the objective of protecting national security is balanced against upholding the rights and freedoms of individuals. This bill amends the Independent National Security Legislation Monitor Act 2010 to allow the monitor to report on its own inquiries in standalone reports; to clarify the reporting arrangements for the monitor following statutory reviews or referrals from the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security; and to provide a framework for the engagement of staff to assist the monitor. The bill implements recommendations made by the former monitor and by the 2019 Comprehensive Review of the Legal Framework of the National Intelligence Community, which, I am pleased to say, the government has accepted. The amendments will assist the monitor in the performance of their role and, as a result, will help ensure Australia's counterterrorism and national security legislation remains proportionate and consistent with Australia's national obligations.

A key function of the monitor is to review the Commonwealth counterterrorism and national security legislation and to report on the outcomes of those reviews. The monitor can conduct its own-motion reviews on specific matters and must conduct specific statutory reviews and reviews on matters referred by the Attorney-General or the Prime Minister. The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, the PJCIS, may also refer matters to the monitor, and the monitor may decide to take up the referral as its own-motion review. This bill would amend the Independent National Security Legislation Monitor Act to enable the monitor to report on its own inquiries in standalone reports, separate to the monitor's annual reports. This will help clarify the review and reporting arrangements for statutory reviews, own-motion reviews and reviews conducted after a PJCIS referral. This responds to recommendations made by the former monitor, Dr James Renwick CSC SC, and by the 2019 Comprehensive Review of the Legal Framework of the National Intelligence Community.

As I said before, these amendments will also help to address the engagement of staff to assist the monitor. The monitor is a part-time, statutory appointment. When the position was established in 2010, it was envisaged that the monitor would only undertake one review a year. Since then, the role has evolved, including through an increased number of statutory reviews of various legislation. The monitor is now supported by three permanent employees of the Attorney-General's Department, whose services have been made available to assist the monitor, as well as legal representatives who are engaged in relation to specific reviews. This bill would formalise arrangements by amending the Independent National Security Legislation Monitor Act to include provisions for the engagement of staff, including contractors, to assist the monitor with the performance of functions and the exercise of powers.

The bill provides current and former staff of the monitor with appropriate protections for any acts or omissions done by that person in good faith during the course of assisting the monitor in the performance of its functions or the exercise of its powers. These protections are similar to arrangements for the staff of other statutory oversight office holders, such as the Commonwealth Ombudsman, the Integrity Commissioner and the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security.

I commend this bill to the Senate, but we need to look at why our agencies need it. Since September 2014 Australia's law enforcement agencies have disrupted 18 major terrorist attack plots and 128 people have been charged as a result of 59 counterterrorism related operations around Australia, and 52 terrorist offenders are currently behind bars for committing a Commonwealth terrorism offence. That's an enormous number, and it's an enormous number of Australians who could have been put in harm's way without the great work of our law enforcement agencies. So, to help boost those security agencies, we've passed 23 tranches of national security legislation. These are helping our intelligence and law enforcement agencies to investigate, monitor, arrest and prosecute extremists. The government has boosted funding for our law enforcement, intelligence and security agencies by over $2 billion since 2014. Recent legislation that was passed by the parliament means a person who is a dual national can cease to be an Australian citizen if they act in a way that is inconsistent with their allegiance to Australia. This includes engaging in terrorism related conduct, fighting for a declared terrorist organisation outside of Australia or being sentenced to at least three years for specified terrorism offences. Twenty people have lost their Australian citizenship through terrorism related actions.

When we are passing laws such as the one that's before us right now, we are countering not only terrorism but also the radicalisation that can drive it. Since 2013-14 the coalition government has allocated more than $61 million to programs for countering violent extremism, including more than $13 million for intervention programs. This takes in all forms of violent extremism, not just religious violent extremism. There is no place in Australia for people who decide to come here and do harm to Australians. We have increased the minister's power to cancel visas of noncitizens convicted of a serious crime. This has resulted in a 12-fold increase in visa cancellations. Between December 2014 and November 2020, the government cancelled or refused visas for over 8,500 dangerous criminals. This includes 209 for murder, 404 for rape or sexual assault, 684 for the most heinous of crimes—child sex crimes—468 for armed robbery and 1,461 for drug offences.

As we talked about before—and I'm on the relevant Senate select committee—in addition to addressing national security we also have to look at how we tackle foreign interference. Legislation to strengthen Australia's capacity to defend against foreign interference was passed in 2018. It criminalises covert and deceptive activities of foreign actors, requires people to register if they engage in lobbying on behalf of a foreign principal and creates a register of critical infrastructure assets. The recently passed Australia's Foreign Relations (State and Territory Arrangements) Act gives the Australian government the power to veto agreements struck by state and local governments and universities with foreign countries. I was very pleased to see, in my home state, that the Victorian Belt and Road Initiative agreement between the People's Republic of China and the Andrews Victorian state government was struck down. With that, I commend this bill to the Senate.