PARLIAMENT OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA Inquiry into the impact of the exercise of law enforcement and intelligence powers on the freedom of the press Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security August 2020 CANBERRA © Commonwealth of Australia ISBN 978-1-76092-041-8 (Printed Version) ISBN 978-1-76092-042-5 (HTML Version) This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License. The details of this licence are available on the Creative Commons website: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/au/. Contents Members ............................................................................................................................................ ix Terms of Reference ........................................................................................................................... xi Abbreviations .................................................................................................................................. xiii List of Recommendations ............................................................................................................... xv The Report 1 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 1 Scope of this report and conduct of the inquiry................................................................ 1 Committee comment ................................................................................................ 3 Extension of reporting timeline and COVID-19 impacts .................................... 4 Subjects covered in this report ................................................................................ 4 Report structure ..................................................................................................................... 5 Related current or recent inquiries and reports ................................................................ 5 Senate Environment and Communications References Committee’s inquiry into Press Freedom ....................................................................................... 6 Richardson Review of the legal framework governing the National Intelligence Community .............................................................................. 6 Committee comment ................................................................................................ 7 Senate Select Committee on the Future of Public Interest Journalism .............. 8 Australian Law Reform Commission’s report into Traditional Rights and Freedoms—Encroachments by Commonwealth Laws .......................... 8 Australian Law Reform Commission’s report into secrecy and open government ................................................................................................... 9 iii iv Other reports not directly related to the inquiry’s terms of reference ............. 10 Review of the Public Interest Disclosure Act 2013 (2016) ..................... 10 Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services report into Whistleblower Protections ......................... 10 Committee comment regarding statutory reviews undertaken by this Committee ................................................................................................... 10 2 Background and interactions between media, law enforcement, and intelligence agencies ............................................................................................. 13 Background and events leading up to the inquiry ......................................................... 13 Recent events ........................................................................................................... 17 Developments since the commencement of the inquiry ....................... 19 Committee comment .............................................................................................. 21 Legislative frameworks and their complexity ................................................................. 22 Development of elements of national security offences and legislation ......... 23 National security and intelligence capability security ................................................... 24 Committee comment .............................................................................................. 27 The importance of national security vs transparency ........................................ 27 Committee comment .............................................................................................. 29 The experience of journalists and media organisations with law enforcement and intelligence agencies and their impacts ............................................................... 30 International assessment of press freedom in Australia ................................... 33 Committee comment .............................................................................................. 35 Examples of cooperation between the media and intelligence and law enforcement agencies .................................................................................................................... 36 Committee comment .............................................................................................. 37 What is the chilling effect? – secrecy vs public interest ................................................. 37 Committee comment .............................................................................................. 41 Can a chilled media and public discourse make foreign interference easier? 41 Committee comment .............................................................................................. 45 3 Balancing national security and public accountability while rebuilding trust........................................................................................................................... 47 v Proposals for consultation and consolidated legislation ............................................... 47 Counterpoint arguments and proposals .............................................................. 48 Australia’s Right to Know proposals ....................................................... 48 Proposed exemption for criminal liability .................................. 49 Proposed contested warrant process ........................................... 50 Department of Home Affairs and Australian Federal Police proposals51 Notice to Produce Framework ..................................................... 52 ARTK, Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom and Law Council of Australia responses ........................................................................ 54 Committee comment .............................................................................................. 57 Law enforcement and intelligence agency powers and warrants ................................ 58 Current review mechanisms for warrant applications ...................................... 58 Contested hearings in relation to warrants ............................................. 60 Public Interest Advocates ...................................................................................... 63 Potential expansion of Public Interest Advocates to other warrant types ...... 67 Existing Australian public interest mechanisms .................................... 67 Victoria............................................................................................. 68 Queensland ..................................................................................... 68 Comparable international models ............................................................ 69 United Kingdom ............................................................................. 69 Role of the Investigatory Powers Commissioner’s Office (IPCO)72 Canada ......................................................................................................... 75 Authorisation of warrants ..................................................................................... 76 Committee Comment ............................................................................................. 78 Publication of warrant data ................................................................................... 86 Committee comment .............................................................................................. 87 Commonwealth secrecy offences and related defences ................................................. 88 Offences that apply to unauthorised disclosure of information by Commonwealth officers ............................................................................ 88 Offences that relate to dealing with information by journalists ....................... 91 vi Definition of journalist ............................................................................... 92 Public interest defence vs exemption....................................................... 94 Defences, exemptions and increased espionage risk ............................. 97 Committee Comment ............................................................................................. 98 Avenues for further cooperation between media and intelligence and law enforcement ............................................................................................... 100 Committee comment ............................................................................................ 103 Disclosure offences and intention to create harm ...........................................