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Environment and Communications References Committee The Senate Environment and Communications References Committee freedom of the press May 2021 © Commonwealth of Australia 2021 ISBN 978‐1‐76093‐229‐9 (Printed Version) ISBN 978‐1‐76093‐229‐9 (HTML Version) This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution‐NonCommercial‐NoDerivs 4.0 International License. The details of this licence are available on the Creative Commons website:: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by‐nc‐nd/4.0/. Printed by the Senate Printing Unit, Parliament House, Canberra Members Chair Senator Sarah Hanson‐Young AG, SA Deputy Chair Senator the Hon David Fawcett LP, SA Members Senator Catryna Bilyk (from 8 October 2020) ALP, TAS Senator Nita Green ALP, QLD Senator Sam McMahon CLP, NT Senator Anne Urquhart ALP, TAS Substitute Members Senator Susan Lines ALP, WA (for Senator Urquhart on 18 October 2019) Participating Members Senator Rex Patrick IND, SA Senator Janet Rice AG, VIC Former Members Senator Marielle Smith (to 8 October 2020) ALP, SA Secretariat Mr Stephen Palethorpe, Committee Secretary Mr Nicholas Craft, Principal Research Officer Ms Monika Sheppard, Senior Research Officer Mr Michael Perks, Research Officer Ms Emma Wannell, Research Officer Ms Anna Burnard, Graduate Ms Georgia Fletcher, Administrative Officer Mr David Pappas, Administrative Officer Ms Shannon Ross, Administrative Officer PO Box 6100 Phone: 02 6277 3526 Parliament House Fax: 02 6277 5818 Canberra ACT 2600 Email: [email protected] iii Contents Members ............................................................................................................................................. iii List of Recommendations ................................................................................................................. ix Abbreviations .................................................................................................................................. xiii Chapter 1—Introduction and context .............................................................................................. 1 Referral and terms of reference .......................................................................................................... 1 Conduct of the inquiry ........................................................................................................................ 2 Acknowledgement ............................................................................................................................... 2 Note on references ............................................................................................................................... 2 Structure of the report ......................................................................................................................... 2 Background to the inquiry .................................................................................................................. 2 National and international reaction ....................................................................................... 3 Actions resulting from the ʹraidsʹ ........................................................................................... 5 National media campaign ....................................................................................................... 7 Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security ............................................ 8 Chapter 2—Media and national security law environment ...................................................... 11 National security and press freedom .............................................................................................. 11 International human rights law ............................................................................................ 13 Culture of government secrecy ............................................................................................. 15 Journalistsʹ duty to protect confidential sources ................................................................ 18 The need for journalistic protections ................................................................................... 19 Committee comment .............................................................................................................. 21 Mediaʹs relationship with government ........................................................................................... 22 Agency response ..................................................................................................................... 24 Committee comment .............................................................................................................. 24 Freedom of Information Act 1982 .................................................................................................... 25 Impact of the FOI mechanism on journalism ...................................................................... 26 Departmental and agency response ..................................................................................... 28 Committee comment .............................................................................................................. 29 Chapter 3—Sensitive and classified information ....................................................................... 31 Commonwealth law enforcement powers ..................................................................................... 31 v Secrecy and unauthorised disclosure offences .............................................................................. 31 General secrecy offences ........................................................................................................ 32 Other Commonwealth laws .................................................................................................. 39 Legislative protections ...................................................................................................................... 42 Public interest defence to general secrecy offences ............................................................ 42 International comparison ....................................................................................................... 43 Attorney‐Generalʹs direction ................................................................................................. 47 Chapter 4—Whistleblowers ............................................................................................................ 51 Public Interest Disclosure Act ......................................................................................................... 51 Public sector whistleblowers and the media....................................................................... 52 Construction of the PID Act .................................................................................................. 54 Recent studies and reviews relevant to whistleblower protections ............................................ 60 Moss Review ............................................................................................................................ 61 Clean as a whistle study ........................................................................................................ 62 Departmental response .......................................................................................................... 62 Committee comment .............................................................................................................. 63 Enhancing the whistleblower protection regime .......................................................................... 64 Federal shield law ................................................................................................................... 65 Multiplicity and complexity of law enforcement and national security laws ............... 68 Reform proposals .................................................................................................................... 70 Committee comment .............................................................................................................. 74 Chapter 5—Australian Federal Police ........................................................................................... 77 Independence of the Australian Federal Police ............................................................................. 77 Politically sensitive matters .............................................................................................................. 77 Concerns arising from the execution of search warrants in June 2019 ........................... 78 Medevac legislation ................................................................................................................ 80 Independent review and additional guidelines ................................................................. 81 Ministerial direction ............................................................................................................... 82 Departmental and agency response ..................................................................................... 84 Committee comment .............................................................................................................. 85 Chapter 6—Enhanced media warrant regime .............................................................................. 87 Access to journalistic material .......................................................................................................... 87 vi Journalist Information Warrants .........................................................................................
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