<
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/jul/25/howard-era-asio-questioning-powers-never-intended-to-be-permanent-australias-human-rights-chief-warns-ntwnfb>
"Australia’s human rights commissioner has questioned Labor’s moves to make
Asio’s powers for compulsory questioning permanent, warning a planned expansion
of the 9/11-era laws must include robust safeguards for individuals.
The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, introduced two pieces of legislation
this week designed to remove so-called sunset provisions on the domestic spy
agencies’ powers to compel cooperation. The rules act as effective expiry dates
on the powers and require parliament to reconsider their reach on a regular
basis.
Labor will also add sabotage, promotion of communal violence, attacks on the
defence system and serious threats to Australia’s border security to the rules
for compulsory questioning.
Under the
Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Act, intelligence
operatives have powers to issue a questioning warrant requiring a person as
young as 14 to give information or produce items that may assist in a serious
investigation.
Introduced after the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks in the US, the powers
have hardly been used since 2020, with just four warrants served on three
people, in counter-terrorism and espionage cases.
The human rights commissioner, Lorraine Finlay, said Asio should have the
necessary powers to protect Australians but that the current compulsory
questioning powers were extraordinary in their intrusions on a number of
fundamental human rights “and were never intended to be permanent”."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
