Committee to review three national security bills

THE Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security has commenced two reviews into the three new national security bills.

The Identity-matching Services Bill 2019 and the Australian Passports Amendment (Identity-matching Services) Bill 2019 (the Identity-matching Bills), and the Counter-Terrorism Legislation Amendment (2019 Measures No. 1) Bill 2019 (CTLA Bill) are all reintroduced Bills. Previous Bills lapsed upon this year’s election. At this time the Committee’s reviews of the Bill also lapsed.

The Identity-matching Services Bill 2019 is intended to facilitate the secure, automated and accountable exchange of identity information between the Commonwealth and state and territory governments, pursuant to the objectives of the Intergovernmental Agreement on Identity Matching Services (IGA), agreed by COAG in October 2017.

The Australian Passports Amendment (Identity-matching Services) Bill 2019 amends the Australian Passports Act 2005 (Passports Act) to provide a legal basis for ensuring that the Minister is able to make Australian travel document data available for all the purposes of, and by the automated means intrinsic to, the identity-matching services to which the Commonwealth and the States and Territories agreed in the IGA.

The Counter-Terrorism Legislation Amendment (2019 Measures No. 1) Bill 2019 contains a range of amendments intended to strengthen Australia’s counter-terrorism legislative framework. The measures in the Bill fall into two broad categories – amendments relating to restrictions on bail and parole under the Crimes Act 1914 , and amendments relating to the continuing detention order (CDO) scheme in Division 105A of the Commonwealth Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth).

The committee invites written submissions addressing any or all aspects of the Bills.

Prospective submitters have been advised that any submission to the committee’s inquiry must be prepared solely for the inquiry and should not be published prior to being accepted by the Committee. 

Submissions are requested by 6 September 2019 for the Committee’s review of the Identity-matching Bills, and by 23 August 2019 for the Committee’s review of the CTLA Bill.

Further information about making a submission to a committee inquiry can be found at this link.

Further information on the inquiry can be obtained from the committee’s website.

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