28th Oct 2014, 9:32 PM – Senate Counter-Terrorism Legislation Amendment (Foreign Fighters) Bill 2014 - In Committee - Add extra defences to unauthorise disclosure offence

The majority were against including two more defences to the unauthorised disclosure offence. The two defences would have been that the disclosures were:

1. made reasonably and in good faith, and in the public interest
2. concerned corruption or misconduct in relation to the issuing or execution of a delayed notification search warrant (DNSW)

Liberal Democratic Party Senator David Leyonhjelm had proposed to include these two exceptions.

Offence for unauthorised disclosure

A person commits the offence for unauthorised disclosure if they disclose information that relates to a delayed notification search warrant (DNSW) (maximum sentence is two years jail). The DNSW scheme will let the Australian Federal Police (AFP) do searches without letting the owner or occupier know until later.

Background to the bill

A number of incidents happened before and after this bill's introduction. There was one of the biggest counter-terrorism operations in Australian history. The Prime Minister Tony Abbott also confirmed that Australia would be sending the military to Iraq to fight the Islamic State (IS) (also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)).

Two particularly significant incidents were when:

• Australian teenager Abdullah Elmir threatened Prime Minister Tony Abbott in an IS video;
• Canadian gunman Michael Zehaf-Bibeau attacked the Canadian Parliament.

Read the bills digest for more information about the bill.