news, federal-politics

The domestic spy agency should lose its powers to detain people for questioning in an overhaul of laws passed in the wake of the September 11 and Bali bombing terrorist attacks, an inquiry has found. A joint parliamentary committee has urged detention be dropped in favour of new laws letting ASIO apprehend people to attend questioning, if there's a risk they will otherwise alert terror suspects to intelligence operations or destroy evidence. The agency could also find it easier to compel people to answer questions after the committee said ASIO shouldn't need permission from judges. The Law Council of Australia applauded the committee for urging an end to ASIO's detention regime, saying it had recognised the powers failed to strike the right balance between security and upholding the rule of law. ASIO has not detained anyone for questioning in the 14 years since it received the powers, a factor that swayed the committee along with the emergence since 2003 of powers letting police disrupt terrorism. "Noting the seriousness of ongoing detention, the constitutional and human rights concerns with the current framework and the non-use of the powers, the committee is of the view that the current provisions are no longer the appropriate response to the threat of terrorism," it said. The powers let the agency hold people for up to seven days and compel them to answer questions if it may "substantially assist the collection of intelligence that is important in relation to a terrorism offence", even if they are not terror suspects. ASIO told the inquiry the measures, subject to a sunset clause and due to expire in September, should be retained, made to apply to any matter of "security", and become easier to obtain so that spies can respond faster to threats. It said it would support the detention regime being repealed if Parliament passed a law letting it "pre-emptively" compel people to attend questioning. ASIO is likely to keep other compulsory questioning powers after they were backed in the inquiry's report, released on Thursday, which also recommended the agency have a shorter path to gaining warrants to question people. The spy agency warned that the multiple steps required now - including authorisation from a judge - stopped it from acting fast on developing threats, prompting the committee to say the Attorney-General alone should authorise the warrants. The committee also recommended the Attorney-General be allowed to authorise questioning verbally in emergencies. However the courts should still decide when ASIO can wield any ongoing detention power, it said. Children as young as 14 could be questioned after the committee accepted the agency's argument its compulsory questioning regime be expanded to include minors. It found the powers should only apply to young people who are under investigation, not merely the "subject of suspicion in relation to the unrelated activities of that minor's friends or family members". ASIO should also be unable to apprehend minors for questioning, it said. The agency pushed to broaden compulsory questioning, telling a review of the anti-terrorism measure it should also target espionage, "communal violence" and foreign interference - a matter the committee said the government could consider. The committee said a sunset clause on ASIO power's should be extended by a year until new laws are formed and reviewed. ASIO has executed 16 questioning warrants since 2003, and none since 2010, a figure it blamed partly on a slow process to gain approval.