The Legal Rhetoric of Safety and Security: Improving National Security Law Process, Enactment and Content by Moderating its Executive and Legislative Influence

Abstract

<p>The legal rhetoric of safety and security has become a touchstone in continuous Australian national security legislative enactment and reform. In this article, the political origins of safety and security are identified with Prime Ministerial and other ministerial statements, consistently framing national security legislative measures around a physical security aspect. This rhetoric and resultant legislative practice inadequately connects with or reinforces the practices of Australian democracy. It has produced a distorting effect over national security laws. The article looks at three different, but related, illustrative examples reflecting this narrow safety and security ascendancy. It canvasses contemporary reasons – legislative, technological and organisational-bureaucratic, demonstrating a pressing need for reform of national security legislative enactment and review, particularly with increasing securitisation of the Australian polity. It proposes broadening legislative review foundations and ameliorating methodological deficiencies, by prioritising reforms for the lead reviewer, the PJCIS and its connections with other forms of review.</p>