The chair of the Australian Press Council has called for the introduction of an independent public advocate to monitor the expanded powers of Australia’s intelligence agencies.



The first tranche of the government’s national security legislation, passed by the lower house on Wednesday, creates a new class of “special intelligence operations” that grant Asio officers immunity from prosecution for use of force and are shrouded in an additional layer of official secrecy.

In a move that has alarmed press freedom organisations around the world, the act could also criminalise disclosure about these operations putting journalists at risk of up to 10 years’ jail for reporting about the operations.

The Greens senator Scott Ludlam announced on Wednesday the Greens would not be supporting the next tranche of legislation, which will force telecommunications companies to keep the personal details of Australians for two years.

In an interview with Guardian Australia, the press council chief, Julian Disney, said the new laws needed an increased level of oversight because of the additional powers they were granted.

“There should be some form of independently appointed public advocate who is privy to the same information as the inspector general and can put the other side of the case to what will have been put to the inspector general by the government and Asio,” he said.

He added that it was critical for the inspector general of intelligence and security, journalists and the community to continue to monitor how the new laws were implemented.

“It will be crucial now to monitor closely the legislation in operation and that applies to three things in particular. First the declaration of particular special intelligence operations, which involves the role of the attorney general – that is how often are they declared, how narrowly are they defined, and whether they are as limited in duration as possible.”

“The second is the independence, rigour and transparency of the oversight and third is the use of the powers to access computer networks.”

The Greens deputy leader, Adam Bandt, attempted to introduce several amendments to the law on Wednesday, and spoke out against the legislation as it passed.

“These laws will make a secretive government less accountable and tilt the balance further away from the public interest,” Bandt said.

In the sole voice of opposition from the major parties, Labor MP Melissa Parke spoke out against key elements of the bill.

“Contrary to the reductive argument that says we’re making a straight trade of less freedom for more safety the reality is likely to be and indeed has proved to be many times in the past that constraining our fundamental liberties achieves nothing more than making us less free and in fact does ourselves more harm by licensing the abuse of powers,” she said.

The Labor party signed off on the laws in the Senate will little opposition, despite shadow attorney general Mark Dreyfus initially expressing concern about them if they could criminalise reporting.

Ludlam announced the Greens would not be supporting the next tranche of legislation to be introduced, which relates to mandatory data retention of Australia’s online personal information.

“What’s coming down the pipeline next – now the Parliament has criminalised national security reporting – is warrantless metadata surveillance of the entire Australian population,” he said.

“This will affect every man, woman and child and every device in the country. Now the government has rammed the Asio laws through the Parliament today it is now turning its sights on every internet user in the country.

“Today we put the Labor party on notice: start behaving like an opposition – you are not going to be able to sit this one out.”