26th Nov 2014, 12:47 PM – Senate Counter-Terrorism Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 1) 2014 - Third Reading - Pass the bill

The majority supported passing the bill in the Senate (in parliamentary jargon, they voted to give the bill a third reading). The bill will now go to the House of Representatives to see if the members of parliament (MPs) agree with the senators and also want to pass the bill. If they do, the bill will become law.

Background to the bill

This bill is the third that has been introduced since mid-2014. A number of incidents have happened before and during the course of the introduction of these bills.

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)).

The scope of this bill is narrower than the earlier two but some of its measures are "significant and warrant close scrutiny" (see bills digest). In particular, the proposed expansion of the control order regime and measures that would allow the heads of Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS), Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) and Australian Geospatial-Intelligence Organisation (AGO) to authorise activities in place of ministers in emergency circumstances.