National Security Legislation Amendment (Comprehensive Review and Other Measures No. 1) Bill 2021

The majority voted in favour of passing the bill in the Senate. Because the bill has already been passed in the House of Representatives, it will now become law.

What does the bill do?

According to the bill homepage, the purpose of the bill is to:

• enable the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS), the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) and the Australian Geospatial-Intelligence Organisation (AGO) to undertake activities to produce intelligence where there is, or is likely to be, an imminent risk to the safety of an Australian person;
• enable ASIS, ASD and AGO to seek ministerial authorisation to produce intelligence on a class of Australian persons who are, or are likely to be, involved with a listed terrorist organisation;
• enable ASD and AGO to seek ministerial authorisation to undertake activities to produce intelligence on an Australian person, or class of persons, where they are assisting the Australian Defence Force in support of military operations;
• amend the requirement for ASIS, ASD and AGO to obtain ministerial authorisation to produce intelligence on an Australian person to circumstances where the agencies seek to use covert and intrusive methods which include methods for which the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) would require a warrant to conduct inside Australia;
• clarify the requirement for ASIS, ASD and AGO to seek ministerial authorisation before requesting a foreign partner agency to produce intelligence on an Australian person;
• remove the geographic limit requiring that ASIS activities undertaken to support ASIO in the performance of its functions be conducted outside Australia;
• provide that, for the purposes of carrying out its non-intelligence functions, AGO is not required to seek ministerial approval for cooperation with authorities of other countries;
• clarify the meaning of authorities of other countries;
• require the Office of National Intelligence to obtain Director-General approval when undertaking cooperation with public international organisations;
• extend the period for passport suspension and foreign travel document surrender from 14 to 28 days;
• extend immunity provided to staff of ASIS and AGO for computer-related acts done outside Australia to acts which inadvertently affected a computer or device located outside Australia;
• allow ASD to participate in the assumed identities scheme;
• approve a class of persons to exercise the authority conferred by an ASIO warrant;
• clarify the permissible scope of classes; and
• introduce certain record-keeping requirements.

See the bills digest for more detailed information.