Reviewing the Reviewer: The Role of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security - Constructing or Constricting Terrorism Law Review?

Abstract

In 2014, the Abbott Government, in following up national security reforms initiated by its predecessor and in responding to the rise of Islamic State and its variants and the issue of foreign fighters, introduced into and had enacted by the Commonwealth Parliament three signifi cant pieces of legislation: the National Security Legislation Amendment Act (No 1) 2014 (Cth) ('NSLA Act'), the Counter-Terrorism Legislation Amendment (Foreign Fighters) Act 2014 (Cth) ('Foreign Fighters Act'), and the Counter-Terrorism Legislation Amendment Act (No 1) 2014 (Cth) ('CTLA Act'). These enactments followed a National Security Committee of Cabinet request to Attorney-General Brandis in May 2014 'to undertake a comprehensive review of all of the Commonwealth counterterrorism laws to make sure that they were strong enough, while at the same time, not going too far, not violating the rule of law or the rights of individuals which are part of our own liberal democratic heritage'. The Abbott Government subsequently introduced into the Parliament a fourth piece of legislation, the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Amendment (Data Retention) Bill 2014 (Cth) ('Data Retention Bill').