Claire Chandler (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to make some additional comments, particularly following the contribution of Senator Birmingham on the International Organisations (Privileges and Immunities) Amendment Bill 2023. The Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation Committee, of which I am Deputy Chair, has reviewed this bill and made a recommendation that it should pass this chamber. However, I think it is important to put on the record during this debate this morning some of the additional comments that coalition senators made in the inquiry report, so that it is clear that the new arrangements that will be put in place by the bill should be monitored on an ongoing basis to ensure that they are effective and that there is not a creep of scope in terms of the organisations which can be made eligible for exemptions.

The International Organisations (Privileges and Immunities) Amendment Bill 2023 introduces new powers for the government to grant privileges and immunities—such as immunity from Australian legal processes or tax exemptions for Australian residents employed by the organisation—to international organisations and individuals. The bill contains one schedule which the explanatory memorandum explains will amend the act to:

I note that the exclamatory memorandum also references that the bill will not change the specific privileges and immunities contained in the act, nor does it change the process of the conferral of privileges and immunities on an organisation, which generally occur by way of regulations made by the Governor-General. The government's stated aim in introducing this act is to provide flexibility in the granting of privileges and immunities, to give effect to agreed privileges and immunities under existing treaties—for example, with the OECD—and to assist in deepening Australia's defence, science and other strategic relationships.

The coalition has a strong record of ensuring that international organisations and relevant officials are granted the necessary privileges and immunities to function effectively and operate independently, particularly during our own time in government. In the past, there has been a strict and conventional interpretation of what was and what was not an international organisation. This was a longstanding approach of successive Australian governments, and coalition senators have given very careful consideration as to why this approach should now change, as referenced in our additional comments in the committee report. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade's submission to the committee inquiry didn't actively engage with the reasons for its change in position since 2013, and it doesn't articulate how this new bill prevent or mitigates the government's previous concerns regarding an inadvertent expansion of the scope of this act. We're of the view that the parliament should continue to assure itself that the new arrangements put in place by this bill are working in ways that prevent the inadvertent extensions of scope to other organisations. These privileges and these immunities that we are talking about with this bill are important ones, and they should not be extended without due consideration of the possible implications of doing so.

We note that the conferral of privileges will continue to occur by the making of regulations rather than through legislation, and these regulations are tabled in the parliament and are subject to the usual disallowance procedures, particularly in this place. There is an avenue for the parliament to disallow if it believes an incorrect or inappropriate decision has been made to extend the privileges and immunities in question to an international organisation. We in the coalition will be carefully monitoring the implementation of this new framework to ensure that Australia continues to grant privileges and immunities when they are required under our international obligations and commitments, and in ways that do not inadvertently extend the scope to other organisations or without due reason for doing so.

We need to be very conscious that immunity from Australian legal processes is a major privilege afforded to certain international organisations, and therefore it should be applied only in very strictly controlled circumstances. There are, of course, many organisations and groups around the world who are not currently granted this status and this privilege but would like to be. So it is critical that we in the parliament keep a close watch, going into the future, to ensure that there is not a creeping of the scope of these privileges, that they are not inappropriately extended where they should not be, and that we don't lose appropriate oversight and scrutiny of where, when and to whom these privileges and immunities are provided.