New Anti-Terrorism Laws Pass the Senate
Friday 26 September 2014 @ 12.51 p.m. | Crime
The new anti-terrorism laws, namely; the National Security Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 1) 2014 (the Bill), which we have previously reported on (see Proposed National Security Amendments Criminalise Reporting On Special Intelligence Operations) passed through the Senate last night (Thursday, 24 September 2014) with little resistance overall and support from the opposition.
As SMH reports, the Bill is the government's first round of new very tough anti-terrorism laws, which as the press also reports ". . . will beef up the powers of the domestic spy agency ASIO". The Bill passed the Senate by 44 votes to 12 with bipartisan support from the Labor opposition. The Bill is now expected to be sent on to the House of Representatives, where passage is also expected to be "all but guaranteed" when Parliament next meets.
A Package of Three
This is the first of a package of three measures.
On Wednesday (23 September 2014), the Federal Government introduced the Counter-Terrorism Legislation Amendment (Foreign Fighters) Bill 2014 into the Senate, which is a second anti-terrorism Bill which targets "foreign fighters" and which is expected to be debated next month (see Counter-Terrorism Legislation Amendment (Foreign Fighters) Bill 2014: Key Amendments, for more detail). Like the first Bill these changes have opposition support and in broad terms will make it a criminal office to travel to a "terrorist hot-spot" without a reasonable excuse.
There is also a third Bill enabling the collection of internet and phone metadata for a period of up to two years for access without warrant by law-enforcement and spy agencies which is expected to be introduced later this year (see Metadata and Data Retention: Technical Terminology and Voodoo).
Only Two Major Amendments
The Bill passed the Senate with only two major amendments being agreed to by the Government. One amendment arising from concerns raised by Labor and Senator Leyonhjelm relating to torture, where the government agreed to amend the legislation to specifically rule out ASIO using torture. The other amendment advanced by the Palmer United Party was to amend the law so anyone who exposes an undercover ASIO operative could face up to 10 years behind bars instead of the previous one year.
Reaction to the First Bill
The Federal Attorney General is reported as saying When the bill passed on Thursday night, that: ". . . it was the most important reform for Australia's intelligence agencies since the late 1970s".
Those voting against the Bill included the Australian Greens, who criticised the new laws as extreme and a "relentless expansion of powers of the surveillance state". As well, the Bill was opposed by independent Senators Leyonhjelm, Xenophon and Madigan.
Greens spokes person, Senator Ludlam is reported as telling SMH that the passing of the Bill represented:
". . . a scary, disproportionate and unnecessary expansion of coercive surveillance powers that will not make anybody any safer but that affect freedoms that have been quite hard fought for and hard won over a period of decades, . . . I have very grave concerns about the direction that the Australian government seems to be suddenly taking the country."
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