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

The Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security plays a critical role, but I have to say that, from the view of the Greens, the oversight mechanisms that relate to this country's security apparatus are not as comprehensive as they should be. I will first mention the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security. Obviously that is a closed shop. That committee is made up of the so-called parties of government in this place and it is a committee from which the crossbench, both in this place and in the House, are excluded. What that means, in terms of its operation, is that the major parties collude behind closed doors of that committee, and that committee pumps out recommendations that basically deliver on the agenda of the security apparatus in this country.

That's how we see the ongoing erosion of rights and freedoms in Australia. That's one of the reasons we are the only liberal democracy in the world that does not have some form of charter or bill of rights. Critically, the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security does not oversight the operations of our security apparatus. So we need a suite of oversight measures that allow for adequate scrutiny of our security agencies. One example of why we need adequate oversight of our security agencies—and a further example of the gap in the oversight of our security agencies—is what's happened since one of our security agencies bugged the cabinet deliberations of the government of Timor-Leste at the very time that Australia was in negotiations with Timor-Leste over treaty arrangements pertaining to petroleum deposits in the Timor Sea.

As history shows, a brave whistleblower, Witness K, reported concerns he had to the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security and then, on the basis of advice, went to Mr Bernard Collaery, who was then providing him with some legal advice. Mr Collaery and Witness K were then charged—wrongly so—in relation to their behaviours. They should never have been charged. Witness K ultimately pled out—and I have huge sympathy for Witness K—and Mr Collaery went through multiple years of legal travails before ultimately the charges against him were finally withdrawn on the basis of a decision by the now Attorney-General, Mr Dreyfus.

But the issue here is that the bugging of the Timor-Leste government was never adequately investigated. It is the view of the Greens, having long considered this case, that there are elements of that bugging that create the crime of a criminal conspiracy that was conducted here in the ACT, when decisions were made here in Australia, in jurisdiction for Australian law, that ultimately resulted in the bugging of the Timor-Leste government. That is one of the many reasons we need a proper, far more comprehensive suite of oversight mechanisms to hold our security agencies to account.