Criminal Code Amendment (State Sponsors of Terrorism) Bill 2025

Ms ROWLAND (Greenway—Attorney-General) (17:44): I note that this amendment seeks to implement recommendation 1 of the PJCIS report into the Criminal Code Amendment (State Sponsors of Terrorism) Bill 2025. As explained during my summing-up contribution moments ago, the government supports that recommendation in principle. The government shares the view put by the Attorney-General's Department, in evidence during the public hearing and on notice, that nothing in the proposed part 5.3A confers any new powers or functions on the AFP.

Part 5.3A only create new offences, not new functions, with the investigative functions of the AFP instead drawn from the Australian Federal Police Act 1979. However, schedule 2 of this bill does make amendments to the existing part 5.3 to ensure that powers exercised by the AFP in respect of terrorist organisation offences—that is, the various order frameworks in divisions 104, 105 and 105A—can also be exercised for state sponsors of terrorism.

Therefore, the government maintains that current sections 29(1)(baa) and (bab) of the Intelligence Services Act 2001 do provide the committee the function to monitor and review the performance of the functions of the AFP under part 5.3 whether engaged in by a state or non-state entity. For those reasons, the government will not be supporting this amendment. Question unresolved.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Dr Garland ): As it is necessary to resolve this question to enable further questions to be considered in relation to this bill, in accordance with standing order 195 the bill will be returned to the House for further consideration. Federation Chamber adjourned at 17:4 6