AusCheck Amendment (Global Entry Program) Bill 2025, Transport Security Amendment (Security of Australia's Transport Sector) Bill 2025

Senator WATT (Queensland—Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) (18:26): I table an explanatory memorandum relating to the AusCheck Amendment (Global Entry Program) Bill 2025 and a revised explanatory memorandum relating to the Transport Security Amendment (Security of Australia's Transport Sector) Bill 2025, and I move: That these bills be now read a second time.

I seek leave to have the second reading speeches incorporated in Hansard. Leave granted. The speeches read as follows— AUSCHECK AMENDMENT (GLOBAL ENTRY PROGRAM) BILL 2025 The AusCheck Amendment (Global Entry Program) Bill 2025 enables the expansion of Australia's participation in the United States' trusted traveller Global Entry program.

Australia's participation in the Global Entry Program will improve the border entry experience for the multitude of Australians who visit the United States every year. The relationship between Australia and the United States is built on strong people-to-people links, based on common values and our deep historical and cultural bonds. A significant number of Australian citizens travel annually to the United States and its territories, including tourists, students, professional workers, temporary business travellers and working holiday makers.

The Global Entry Program is a voluntary program and provides an avenue for eligible citizens of trusted partner countries to have access to faster entry at US airports. The opportunity to access expedited clearances when crossing US borders is already available for citizens of other nations and we also want to make this available for Australians. This Government has entered into an arrangement with the United States that enables Australian citizens to join this program, which is a sign of the closeness and trust between our two nations.

Implementation of this arrangement was announced to the public on 6 August 2024 by Senator the Hon Penny Wong, Minister for Foreign Affairs at the Australia-United States Ministerial Consultations forum. As a requirement for participation in the Global Entry Program, the Australian Government must complete background checks on applicants who are Australian citizens.

This Bill includes amendments of the AusCheck Act 2007, to provide a legislative basis for Australia's participation in the Global Entry program. The Bill will amend the regulation-making power in the AusCheck Act to allow regulations to be made for the purpose of coordinating and conducting background checks of an individual, to enable participation in the Global Entry Program.

AusCheck, situated within the Department of Home Affairs, has a long history of providing background checks for various national security related background checking programs. It has well-established controls and processes in place, and the expertise and experience necessary to undertake background checks for the high volume of applicants expected to apply for the Global Entry Program.

Background checks are managed through a cyber-secure system, which limits unauthorised access to applicants' information. The system features integration with checking partners to ensure a secure and efficient end-to-end process for assessing applications. Utilising the existing AusCheck framework will provide a streamlined background checking process for Australian Global Entry Program applicants.

The Bill also allows regulations to be made that prescribe the criteria for background checks for Global Entry Program applicants. The proposed criteria would align with the eligibility criteria established by the US Government for the Global Entry Program. The amendments will also allow for regulations to prescribe how decisions are to be made and how the results of background checks are to be communicated.

This includes communication of results to the applicant, to an entity who applied on the applicant's behalf, and the US Customs and Border Protection. The amendments in the Bill will also expand the scope of what background checks may be conducted under the AusCheck Act to allow an assessment of whether an applicant has been convicted of particular offences under the Defence Force Discipline Act 1982.

This amendment is necessary to align with the requirements specified by the US Government for eligibility into the Global Entry Program. Personal information collected by AusCheck as part of undertaking background checks for Global Entry Program applicants will be subject to the existing information handling protections as set out in the AusCheck Act. This will safeguard the personal information of all Australian applicants, regardless of when they submitted their application.

A small number of Australian citizens have been able to apply through Phase One of Australia's participation in the Global Entry Program, which commenced on 17 January 2025. We are seeking to progress these legislative reforms to enable Australia's ongoing participation in the Global Entry Program, and open up the program to an unlimited number of Australian citizens.

The Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee have considered the Bill. I would like to thank my colleagues on this committee for their consideration of the Bill. I commend the Bill to the Senate.

TRANSPORT SECURITY AMENDMENT (SECURITY OF AUSTRALIA'S TRANSPORT SECTOR) BILL 2025 Our aviation, maritime, and offshore facility sectors are integral to Australia, as they connect us to the world. It is more important than ever for us to work closely with these sectors to ensure their security and resilience. As Government, we share the responsibility to safeguard the transport industry, and with it, the travelling public from current and emerging threats.

The Transport Security Amendment (Security of Australia's Transport Sector) Bill is an essential part of helping to discharge this responsibility. The transport sector is critical for sustaining Australia's social and economic prosperity and for facilitating the provision of essential goods and services. A secure and resilient transport sector is one where supply chains and essential services are maintained, bolstering trade networks and economic growth.

If a security threat materialises in Australia, it could result in loss of life, and compromise the reliability, continuity, and security of Australia's transport sector. This would have subsequent adverse impacts for Australia's prosperity and security by disrupting essential services, as well as eroding public confidence. Australia faces an inherently complex security environment.

Threats to our airports, ports, and other parts of Australia's critical infrastructure continue to be significant and far-reaching. In the last twelve months alone, Australia has experienced security incidents in the transport sector ranging from breaches of secure areas, failure to detect or prevent prohibited items from entering into sterile areas and a cyber incident crippling a port operator's operations.

The transport security legislative frameworks were enacted when terrorism was the greatest threat to the transport sector. But while the threat of terrorism remains, we now must protect against nation states and other actors targeting our critical transport infrastructure through espionage, sabotage, and foreign interference: all significant and evolving threats.

In the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation's (ASIO) Annual Threat Assessment for 2025, Mike Burgess AM, Director-General of Security, noted the most confronting thing about the new security environment is that there is no single security concern. Malicious cyber activity also remains a threat: according to the Australian Signal Directorate's recently released Cyber Threat Report 2023-2024, there is still a cyber incident in Australia reported every six minutes.

Catastrophic natural hazards and the COVID-19 pandemic have also exposed vulnerabilities and cascading consequences for Australia's critical transport infrastructure and supply chain resilience. The strategic threat environment continues to evolve at pace and our regulatory frameworks must be able to evolve too. This Bill will strengthen Government and industry's resilience to current and emerging threats, and will provide the chance for Government and industry to strengthen its capabilities and partnerships.

This Bill reaffirms the Government is committed to Australia maintaining world-leading transport security settings. In September 2021, the former Government commissioned an Independent Review into Australia's Aviation and Maritime Transport Security Settings, led by Ms Kerri Hartland. This Bill includes targeted, high-impact legislative amendments which seek to respond to the findings of the Independent Review.

This Bill will amend the Aviation Transport Security Act 2004 and the Maritime Transport and Offshore Facilities Security Act 2003 to: enhance Government and industry's resilience to current and emerging threats enable Government to effectively respond to intelligence provide for robust and proportionate regulation under responsive and fit-for-purpose compliance and enforcement powers and align the security obligations of the transport sector with other critical infrastructure sectors in Australia The Bill introduces a number of key security initiatives to: amend the definition of 'unlawful interference' to capture threats that are not bound by physical or geographical location, including cyber security incidents.

Mandatory cyber security incident reporting is being introduced, which will align the transport sector with other critical infrastructure sectors and will ensure that Australia is meetings its international security obligations. introduce an all hazards security framework that will require entities to proactively identify and mitigate risks to physical security, personnel security, cyber security, supply chain resilience, and natural hazards.

This reflects the shift away from a counter-terrorism focus towards a more proactive, holistic approach to current and emerging threats. amend the definition of 'test weapon' and introduces a regulation making power to define items as test weapons. This enhances the Department of Home Affairs ability to operate an agile, risk-based system testing program that uses genuine threat items based on intelligence, and use a variety of weapons that mimic potential attack pathways to protect the travelling public. extend system testing to the maritime sector to support industry capability and responsiveness to security threats and ensure consistent compliance and enforcement tools are available across the transport sector. introduce vulnerability testing in the aviation and maritime sectors to allow the Department to assess what security improvements need to be made to people, processes technology, and legislation.

Vulnerability testing will assist the Department to test the limits of a system's capability to improve Australia's aviation and maritime security settings and partner with industry to identify potential vulnerabilities to remain resilient to current and emerging threats. broaden and align the Secretary's power across the legislative frameworks to issue a security direction where a specific or general threat of unlawful interference is made or exists, or a change in the nature or risk of an existing threat of unlawful interference. extend the demerit points system to the air cargo sector to align scalable and proportionate enforcement options across the aviation sector to address serious and ongoing patterns of non-compliance. amend the definition of port, security regulated port and port facility in the MTOFSA to clarify the scope of facilities, functions and capabilities that are contemplated in the definitions.

This will ensure the relevant entities who contribute to the overall functioning of the port can be captured and provide the maritime industry with the tools to facilitate an all hazards approach to strengthening the security and resilience of the Australian maritime sector. introduce amendments to streamline processes; modernise language, and achieve proportionate regulation for a small cohort of dual purpose vessels, as well as vessels that infrequently travel internationally.

The Bill also contains government amendments in response to recommendations from the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security's review of the Bill. These amendments include: increasing penalties for offences across the ATSA and the Bill that expressly apply to airport operators and aircraft operators, from 200 penalty units to 300 penalty units In subsequent regulations the department will develop an escalating regime which allows for lower value infringements for lesser or single failures increasing to higher value infringements for multiple breaches or egregious non-compliance.

This approach will provide a stronger response for persistent security failings increasing the penalty for offences that expressly applies to screening authorities, from 200 penalty units to 300 penalty units (consistent with the increase for airport and aircraft operators) amending the regulation-making powers in the ATSA that expressly allow regulations to prescribe offences and penalties for airport and aircraft operators, to increase the maximum penalty that may be prescribed for those operators from 200 penalty units to 250 penalty units amending some of those same regulation-making powers that are relevant to screening-related offences, to increase the maximum penalty that may be prescribed for screening authorities to 250 penalty units (consistent with the increase for airport and aircraft operators) amending the general regulation-making powers in sections 388, 74K, and 133 of the ATSA, to increase the maximum penalty that may be prescribed for offences made under those provisions from 50 penalty units to 250 penalty units, and clarifying the application of subsection 48(3) of the Crimes Act 1914 in relation to them and introducing a requirement for the Secretary to notify the Minister for Home Affairs after issuing a special security direction under the ATSA and MTOFSA.

This will enhance the existing safeguards and provide an accountability measure for the Secretary. Penalty provisions encourage entities and individuals to take reasonable care in complying with their security obligations. Raising the maximum penalty units will allow the penalty regime to be responsive and proportionate to serious and ongoing instances of non-compliance, and increase the compliance and enforcement options available to the department as part of its regulatory toolkit.

The continued focus on proportionate regulation acknowledges our shared responsibility for security with industry, and ensures both proactive and reactive measures are in place for ongoing protection against current and emerging threats. Naturally, there will be costs incurred while industry raises their capability and becomes compliant with these reforms. However, the prevention of security incidents and their cascading consequences is a benefit we cannot understate.

Recognising the importance of these reforms and the shared responsibility with industry for Australia's transport security, the Government consulted widely over the course of 2023 and 2024 to ensure the proposed measures were appropriately designed and targeted. This comprehensive consultation process provided the transport sector with an opportunity to ask questions and provide invaluable feedback, which helped shape this Bill.

Industry has generally been supportive of these measures. The Department is committed to continuing to work closely with industry during the implementation of these legislative reforms, through the development of the regulations, and as we progress future stages of the reform agenda. Future stages of the reform agenda will include subsequent legislative and regulatory amendments, as well as initiatives to improve Government and industry capability and partnerships.

This Bill and the stronger security measures it contains will significantly contribute to addressing threats against, and ensure the continued reliability, continuity and security of, Australia's transport critical infrastructure. I commend this Bill to the Senate. Debate adjourned.

Ordered that the resumption of the debate be made an order of the day for a later hour. Ordered that the bills be listed on the Notice Paper as separate orders of the day.