SENATE

14 SENATE Thursday, 13 October 2016
law, the US President is required to ensure the committee is kept 'fully and currently informed' of intelligence
activities, including covert actions and any significant intelligence failure. Australia's intelligence agencies have
long been deeply entwined with their US counterparts, and that is appropriate. It is time that we looked again at
the greater extent of parliamentary scrutiny and oversight that characterises the intelligence system of our ally.
This bill is a modest but important step in that direction. I am very pleased to lend my support, and that of my
colleagues, to this bill, and I hope that this bill is passed in this place.
Senator WATT (Queensland) (11:20): I rise to speak on the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence
and Security Amendment Bill 2015. I note that this is not the first time that this bill has been debated in this place.
It was restored to the Notice Paper after being introduced and debated in 2015. I want to acknowledge the
contribution that other senators made to the debate of this bill in the last parliament. I also want to acknowledge
the work of former senator John Faulkner in initiating the drafting of and consultation on this bill. Mr Faulkner's
expertise and pursuit of the noble aims of this bill are well known. It is a pleasure and a privilege to speak on this
bill, and in doing so I hope to help bring to fruition the task that former senator Faulkner set himself in bringing
about these important reforms to the monitoring of the Australian intelligence community.
This bill seeks to give this parliament a stronger mechanism of oversight over Australia's intelligence and
security agencies to ensure that, while their powers are necessarily increased to keep up with the demands of
current security threats, their accountability to this parliament is not diminished. As former Senator Faulkner
explained:
Parliament must strike a balance between our security imperatives and our liberties and freedoms. (The) Key to achieving
this balance is strong and effective accountability. Enhanced powers demand enhanced safeguards. Public trust and
confidence in our security and intelligence agencies can only be assured through strong and rigorous oversight and scrutiny.
Since the terror attacks that occurred on American soil on 11 September, 2001 our modern world has
unfortunately lived in an age where terror attacks not only are real and possible but seem to becoming more
frequent. I well remember 11 September 2001. As a young lawyer, I was working in Townsville in North
Queensland at the time, working on an unfair dismissal case. We managed in the afternoon of 11 September to
secure our client a very good result, and so I went to the pub and celebrated with some friends of mine who lived
in Townsville at the time. The night got quite late, and I remember the TV screens at Molly Malones, where we
were celebrating, had all of sudden flicked across to what seemed to be pretty crazy events of planes crashing into
buildings in New York. It brought a very sober end to the night. I remember on the way home from that, talking to
one of my friends and saying, 'That was pretty serious, wasn't it?' And we agreed it was. Of course, the world has
gone on to see how serious these kinds of events have become ever since.
Since that time, countries like Australia, which value democracy and human rights, have watched in horror as
terrorist incidents have unfolded around the world. These incidents have caused us to fear attacks on us, whether it
be when we are travelling overseas or even potentially at home. One of the most unfortunate aspects of this, apart
from the terrible loss of human life that occurs in these attacks, is that terrorist attacks have been leapt upon by
some politicians both in Australia and overseas as reasons to become suspicious of particular communities and to
attempt to divide us. That is extremely sad to see.
These terrorist threats are not far off foreign problems that stop beyond Australia's borders. Just this week, as
other speakers have noted, we paused to remember the anniversary of the Bali bombings, where terrorists attacked
crowded nightspots in Kuta Beach and 88 Australians lost their lives. Unfortunately, since 2001, as I say, these
attacks have become more frequent, yet they are no less shocking or ruthless in their execution. Just this year we
witnessed horrific attacks take place in Nice, in France, in Brussels, in Istanbul and among many other places
around the world. Australians, when overseas in these sorts of places, do face real threats and, unfortunately, there
have been similar incidents on Australian soil, albeit nowhere near as destructive as what we have seen overseas.
So these threats are real, and it is the responsibility of this parliament to protect our country and to protect our
people. Parliament is therefore tasked with enacting strong laws and ensuring that our intelligence and security
organisations are given the necessary powers and resources that they need to ensure the security and safety of our
citizens.
There really is no greater responsibility for our parliament to uphold and there really is nothing more precious
to protect than our democracy and our human rights. But protecting our country and protecting our citizens to the
utmost degree does create an uneasy balance between keeping our country secure and valuing the human rights
and freedoms that our democracy guarantees. There is nothing more counter-productive that we could do in
attempting to prevent terrorists who are trying to send a message about our way of life and there is nothing more
destructive and nothing more counter-productive that we could do than to overreach in our response to those
incidents in the powers that we give our intelligence agencies to monitor our people and any other restrictions that
we place on Australian citizens in order to secure our safety. If all we do is overreach and introduce draconian
CHAMBER