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Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security

Committee activities (inquiries and reports)

Review of Security and Counter Terrorism Legislation

In 2002 the Commonwealth Parliament passed a series of security and counter terrorism laws as part of Australia's response to the threat of international terrorism.

Section 29(1)(ba) of the Intelligence Services Act 2001 requires the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security to review the operation, effectiveness and implications of the:

  • Security Legislation Amendment (Terrorism) Act 2002
  • Border Security Legislation Amendment Act 2002
  • Criminal Code Amendment (Suppression of Terrorist Bombings) Act 2002;and
  • Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism Act 2002

and report the Committee's comments and recommendations to each House of the Parliament and to the responsible Minister, as soon as practicable after the third anniversary of the laws coming into force.

The package of legislation was the subject of an independent and public inquiry by the Security Legislation Review Committee under the chairmanship of The Hon. Simon Sheller AO QC (the Sheller Inquiry). The Report of the Sheller Inquiry was tabled by the Attorney-General, The Hon Philip Ruddock MP, in the Parliament on 15 June 2006. The report is available at www.ag.gov.au/slrc

Section 4 of the Security Legislation Amendment (Terrorism) Act 2002 requires the Committee to take account of the Report of the Sheller Inquiry in the conduct of its own review. The Committee has therefore decided to conduct a modified review of the laws in question with a focus on the Sheller Inquiry recommendations.

The Committee has decided not to review the operation of section 102.1 of the Criminal Code Act 1995, which governs the listing of an organisation as a terrorist organisation. This topic will be the subject of a separate Committee review in early 2007, pursuant its statutory obligation under subsection 102.1A(2) of the Criminal Code Act 1995.

The Committee invites witnesses to the Sheller Inquiry to comment on the Sheller Inquiry recommendations by Friday 7 July 2006. Please refer to our brochure called preparing a submission for more information.

In order to facilitate electronic publishing of submissions, the Committee would prefer them to be emailed to pjcis@aph.gov.au or sent on disk or CD-ROM to the Committee Secretariat in Microsoft Word® or Portable Document Format (PDF).

Submissions

Public hearings

Media releases

Report