John Faulkner (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security I present the committee's report entitled Annual report of committee activities 2009-10 and I move:

That the Senate take note of the report.

The tabling of this report has been delayed because of the federal election. It is a report of the activities of the committee of the 42nd Parliament. The activities dealt with in the report were carried out under the previous chair and former member for Brisbane, the Hon. Arch Bevis. I am sure senators would appreciate my taking this opportunity to thank Mr Bevis for his work on the committee. His important contribution to the critically important area of national security is well known to all who have served in this parliament and certainly will be missed.

Reviewing administration and expenditure on an annual basis is one of the primary functions of the committee. Section 29 of the Intelligence Services Act stipulates that the committee has an obligation to review the administration and expenditure, including the annual financial statements, of the Australian intelligence community.

During this period the committee tabled their reviews of administration and expenditure Nos 6, 7 and 8 for the financial years 2006-07, 2007-08 and 2008-09. These reports were, respectively, tabled in September 2009, May 2010 and June 2010. Of these reports, only Review of Adminis­tration and Expenditure No. 8 made recommendations and I refer to two of those recommendations, relating to the efficiency dividend and the funding of the Office of the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security in particular. ONA's submission stated that, as a result of the efficiency dividend, there would be 'some modest reduction in ONA's analytical capacity'. Another agency stated that any additional reduction in their budget would significantly impact their operational activities. The committee was concerned about the impact of the efficiency dividend on the smaller agencies of the Australian intelligence community and therefore recommended that the Australian government review the potential adverse effects of the efficiency dividend on the AIC.

The committee also took the opportunity afforded by this review to look at the budget of the Office of the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, OIGIS. Its budget has not grown in line with ASIO's budget growth. In light of the increases in the number of personnel and activities of the AIC as well as an expansion in OIGIS's role, the committee recommended that the budget of the Office of the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security be increased.

Two reports on the listing of organisations as terrorist organisations were tabled in the period under review. The two reports dealt with five organisations comprising four relistings and one initial listing. These reports were a review of the relisting of Hamas' Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades (the Brigades), Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) as terrorist organisations under the Criminal Code Act 1995 and a review of the listing of al-Shabaab as a terrorist organisation. The committee did not recommend disallowance of any of the regulations in relation to the five organisations.

Since 2002 the committee has sent representatives to the biennial conference of oversight agencies. In 2010 the conference was hosted by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security and the IGIS in Sydney between Sunday, 21 March and Wednesday, 24 March 2010. Members of our committee attended that biennial conference.

On behalf of the committee, I thank all those who have contributed to the work of the committee over the past year. I acknowledge on the occasion of the retire­ment of Senators Trood, Forshaw and McGauran that they have all been significant contributors to the committee over recent years. Finally, I formally thank them, as has the committee, for their service and today I take the opportunity to place that on the public record. I conclude my remarks today by commending this report to the Senate.

Russell Trood (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As a member of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, I would like to take a moment to associate myself with the remarks of Senator Faulkner with regard to this report, Annual report of committee activities 2009-10. I thank Senator Faulkner for his remarks about my own membership of the committee.

I make three brief points with regard to the report. Firstly, I acknowledge the significant contribution that the former chair of the committee, Mr Arch Bevis, made. He was indeed a very diligent and conscientious chair, but he was defeated at the last election. Most of the time I spent on that committee was under his chairmanship. He led it with distinction and I associate myself with Senator Faulkner's remarks about his leadership of the committee.

Secondly, the Office of the Inspector General of Intelligence and Security is a statutory office, which I have watched for some time now. In particular, I have explored with the Inspector-General in a succession of Senate estimates meetings the situation of its budget. It is manifestly obvious that the budget is inadequate for the increasing duties that are being imposed upon the Inspector-General. Almost at every turn it seems the government assumes that the Inspector-General is, firstly, the approp­riate office to undertake various inquiries and, further, that the inquiries to be undertaken and the responsibilities devolved to the Inspector-General are responsibilities that the Inspector-General can undertake without any significant increase in resources. We have reached a point where that cannot continue. It seems to me that the resources of Inspector-General need serious reconsid­eration. The Inspector-General, who is the most diligent of people and whose office is the most diligent of offices, is under considerable constraint with resources and its budget needs to be reviewed.

Thirdly, having sat on the committee for some years and since its activities do take place in a very confidential fashion, I underscore what I regard as the great value of the committee to the parliament. Its activities are, of course, confidential. The witnesses that come before the committee do so in camera. In some quarters, that raises suspicions about the activities of the committee. I think it is an appropriate time, when we are looking at the annual report of the committee, to underscore the fact that the work of the committee is undertaken in the most conscientious way. The committee does explore in great detail the administration of these various agencies, which are very important to the national security of the country, and they do it very effectively. Since I am a member of the committee and we are looking at the annual report, it seems an appropriate occasion to underscore what a valuable exercise this is and how diligently and conscientiously all members of the committee undertake their work.

Michael Forshaw (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I endorse the remarks of Senator Faulkner, who has spent many years on this committee and provided valuable experience to it, and the remarks of Senator Trood. I agree entirely with what he said, particularly his mention of the previous chair before the last election, Mr Arch Bevis, who was a terrific chairman. I think it was definitely a loss to the parliament when he, unfortun­ately, lost his seat. Finally, I thank Senator Faulkner once again for his kind words about me and Senator Trood. This is an extremely important committee of the parliament. It is really an honour to be asked to serve on it. I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.