Labor caucus backs diluted ASIO laws By Cynthia Banham June 18 2003
The federal Attorney-General, Daryl Williams, was unable to say last night where people held by ASIO under its proposed new powers would be kept during their seven-day detention.
Mr Williams was speaking after the Labor caucus yesterday voted unanimously to support the Government's watered-down version of its controversial ASIO bill, ensuring the bill will soon be passed by Parliament.
The proposed laws allow ASIO to detain for up to a week anyone suspected of having information about a terrorist offence, for a total of 24 hours questioning in three eight-hour blocks. The laws will also apply to 16- and 17-year-olds suspected of having committed a terrorist offence.
Mr Williams said the laws would be a "big win for community safety", but conceded they were "unusual" powers to be seeking and he hoped ASIO "never has to use these powers".
Asked where detained people would be kept for the seven days, Mr Williams said they would likely be interrogated in a place "like a court".
For the rest of the time, "a lot is going to depend on the circumstances".
Asked if this could include a detained person's own home, Mr Williams said: "That's a matter for the people who are undertaking the exercise under the legislation. It will be a matter for police, a matter for ASIO and a matter for the prescribed authority."
The prescribed authority would be a former or acting judge, or president or deputy president of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, who would supervise the 24 hours of questioning.
For the rest of the time, the person would be "under the control of the police", Mr Williams said.
Labor's spokesman for home affairs, John Faulkner, said the Opposition would try to convince the Government to reduce the time of detention from seven days to three, but Labor would support the bill regardless.
"There have been dramatic improvements, and that's why the caucus has decided to support the bill," Senator Faulkner said.
The bill was "radically different" to that initially proposed by the Government and rejected by Labor, he said.
It contains a new right of detainees to immediate access to lawyers, a three-year "sunset clause", after which time the laws will have to be passed again, and the minimum age limit has been lifted from 10 to 16.
The Democrats and the Greens remain opposed to the laws and are calling for them to apply only to terrorist suspects, not people suspected of having information about a terrorist offence.
Media organisations are concerned with the reversed burden of proof contained in the laws - the presumption of innocence that applies under criminal law will not apply under them.
John Fairfax, the publisher of the Herald, has written to Mr Williams expressing concern that under the laws, journalists could be questioned about their sources, something "not tenable with respect to the practice of a free press".
Also yesterday it was revealed thattelecommunications interception warrants issued to law enforcement agencies increased last year by 17 per cent.