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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-06-28 Daily Xml
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TELECOMMUNICATIONS (INTERCEPTION) BILL

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading.

(Continued from 30 May 2012.)

The Hon. S.G. WADE (12:32): I rise on behalf of the opposition to speak briefly on the Telecommunications (Interception) Bill 2012. As mentioned in the other place, this bill accompanies the Independent Commissioner Against Corruption Bill and facilitates commonwealth approval for the ICAC to use telephone interception powers by allowing the ICAC to be declared an agency under the commonwealth Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979.

The bill also deals with SAPOL's telecommunication interception powers. However, as SAPOL already constitutes a declared agency under the commonwealth act, I will only be speaking on the ICAC aspect of the bill. In the House of Assembly debate, the Leader of the Opposition raised a concern with clause 5(2) which allows a review agency—the Police Ombudsman or an appointed reviewer—to have discretion to report any noncompliance following an investigation into aspects of the state act or any part of the federal act.

Under the bill, the review agency may include such details of noncompliance in the report on the results of the inspection. I note that the Attorney-General welcomed the leader in the other place putting particular amendments on the record to allow the opportunity to discuss the matters. However, he warns that:

...these state pieces of legislation, which are complementary to the federal legislation, are by and large almost a template, so there is a certain consistency amongst them. The extent to which we depart from that might invite some issues with the commonwealth.

Given that state agencies will primarily be performing the review, with reports making their way to the commonwealth, I find it hard to conceive that the commonwealth is going to be concerned about getting more information, not less. Not only that, the Attorney fails to cite any equivalent template legislation interstate.

Given the seriousness of telephone intercepts, noting noncompliance should not in our view be left to the discretion of the review agency. We believe that a government committed to openness and accountability would want such information provided, which they and the commonwealth stakeholders can assess and consider. Accordingly, I will be moving an amendment to change 'may' to 'must' and thus make a report of noncompliance mandatory.

Of course, if the review agency has the opinion that the noncompliance has occurred, the Attorney-General should be advised. The reports do not become public, and the review agencies is able to provide commentary on the significance of the non-compliance. The noncompliance may be merely technical and not raise any concerns for the reviewer. The Attorney-General and any subsequent stakeholders who receive the report can make their own assessments.

This bill is a straightforward bill intended to meet requirements of the commonwealth act, and the opposition looks forward to complementary amendments to the commonwealth act being considered—I was going to say expeditiously, but I understand the advice is that they might be more efficient than we realise. With those few remarks I commend the bill to the council and foreshadow the amendment.

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Minister for Forests, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Tourism, Minister for the Status of Women) (12:35): I understand that there are no other second reading contributions to this bill. It is a fairly straightforward piece of legislation. By way of concluding remarks I would like to thank the opposition for its support for this bill. It is a companion bill to the ICAC bill and its purpose is to enable the Independent Commission against Corruption to be declared an agency under the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act of the commonwealth, and so enable it to obtain telephone interception warrants for the purpose of investigating corruption in public administration.

Bill read a second time.

Committee Stage

In committee.

Clauses 1 and 2 passed.

Progress reported; committee to sit again.

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