CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Background

1.1        On 24 March 2011, the Senate referred the provisions of the Intelligence Services Legislation Amendment Bill 2011 (Bill) to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee, for inquiry and report by 21 September 2011.

1.2        The Intelligence Services Bill makes amendments to the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Act 1979, the Criminal Code Act 1995 and the Intelligence Services Act 2001, with the aim of improving the operation of key provisions of that legislation.

Conduct of the inquiry

1.3        The committee advertised the inquiry in The Australian newspaper on 30 March and 13 and 27 April 2011, and invited submissions by 6 May 2011. Details of the inquiry, the Bill and associated documents were placed on the committee's website.

1.4        The committee received 13 submissions, which are listed at Appendix 1. Submissions were placed on the committee's website for ease of access by the public.

1.5        A public hearing was held in Canberra on 16 June 2011. A list of witnesses who appeared at the hearing is at Appendix 2, and copies of the Hansard transcript are available through the internet at http://aph.gov.au/hansard.

Acknowledgement

1.6        The committee thanks organisations and individuals who made submissions to this inquiry and gave evidence at the public hearing.

Note on references

1.7        Submission references in this report are to individual submissions as received by the committee, not to a bound volume. References to the committee Hansard are to the proof Hansard. Page numbers may vary between the proof and the official Hansard transcripts.

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