Joint Parliamentary Committee examines national security legislation amendment, including expanded legal protections for spies

A national security legislation amendment bill, currently being considered by a joint parliamentary committee, would insert new protections into the Criminal Code for Australian Security Intelligence Organisation officers.

The changes relate specifically to methods used by intelligence officials to examine subjects' digital footprint.

It would insert defences for ASIO officers for offences relating to interference with facilities, unauthorised modification of data to cause impairment and unauthorised impairment of electronic communication.

"These defences are about times when we have to identify a device of a known target or what devices are around a person of interest," ASIO director-general Mike Burgess told the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security on Tuesday.

"Both in terms of where we are with that investigative subject, where they might be, are they where we think they are?"

Mr Burgess said the agency uses these techniques to support covert activity.

"That covert activity itself would require a warrant for us to do," he said.

"But actually in preparation for covert activity, which requires a warrant, it may well be that we are doing situational awareness to assess an environment.

"And that would include identifying devices present in a certain area, that we may need to conduct some operation activity on," he said.

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The protections would also apply to anyone contracted by, or seconded into, ASIO.

But Mr Burgess emphasised this would not allow protections to extend to other government agencies.

"They can only use them when they're authorised to do so, inside of ASIO, for ASIO's purpose," he said.

The proposed amendments follow Mr Burgess' annual threat assessment, in which he compared an intensifying struggle against hostile adversaries to "hand-to-hand combat".

An official from Home Affairs, the portfolio agency for ASIO, stressed the need for an updated legal framework in this context.

"This is particularly pertinent given the threats posed by foreign interference and espionage as raised in the director-general's annual threat assessment in February 2023 and the rapid pace of technological change," First Assistant Secretary Nicole Spencer told the committee.

The National Security Legislation Amendment (Comprehensive Review and Other Measures No. 2) Bill proposes changes to 12 Commonwealth Acts, in addition to the Criminal Code.

Amendments would enact 10 recommendations made by the Richardson Review into the legal framework of Australia's national intelligence community.

The review was completed in 2019 and made 203 recommendations, 13 of which were adopted by the former Coalition government.

The committee will produce a report on the bill by the end of April.

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