This morning Mark Dreyfus outlined Labors position on the National Security Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 1) 2014. It is important to note that these reforms are the result of a long standing Committee inquiry into Australia’s national security legislation laws initiated by the previous Labor Government. It was initiated under Attorney-General Nicola Roxon, my predecessor in Gellibrand and a staunch advocate of the rights of the Islamic community groups in Melbourne’s West, in May 2012. The Committee’s inquiry into the architecture of Australia’s national security legislation was extensive. 236 submissions were invited into an inquiry that took over a year to complete. The Committee released recommendations for reform of these laws in June 2013. Some of these recommendations were supported by Bret Walker SC, the Independent National Security Monitor, acting from a nonpartisan perspective. It is these recommendations that were originally introduced by the Abbott Government into the Senate into July of this year. These recommendations, however, required further consideration before they were to become law. It is important to ensure that ensuring our national security agencies have the powers available to keep Australians safe. But equally, those powers must be subject to thorough oversight and accountability mechanisms, to ensure that they are used appropriately. And they must be properly balanced against the importance of protecting the human rights of all members of our community. So Labor, through the committee process, initiated a review into the impact of the changes proposed to our national security laws. In writing the report, the Committee strongly recommended a number of amendments to the Bill. Last week we saw the introduction of these amendments into the Senate, with support from both the Government and the Opposition. However, the bipartisan support for the Bill that was debated in the Parliament today is the result of this detailed and thorough policy process, during which differing views clashed and in which Labor played an active part.
Posted on: Wed, 01 Oct 2014 00:17:09 +0000
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