12th Aug 2021, 12:15 PM – Senate Counter-Terrorism Legislation Amendment (Sunsetting Review and Other Measures) Bill 2021 - Second Reading - Declared area offence

The majority voted against an amendment introduced by Tasmanian Senator Anne Urquhart (Labor), which means it failed. The amendment would have added the text below to the usual second reading motion "that the bill be read a second time" - parliamentary jargon fro agreeing with the main idea of the bill.

Amendment text

At the end of the motion, add ", but the Senate:

(a) notes:

(i) in February 2021, the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security tabled a report in the Senate following its review of the "declared areas" provisions in the Criminal Code Act 1995;

(ii) the Committee made four unanimous and bipartisan recommendations, including three recommendations to amend the Intelligence Services Act 2001 and the Criminal Code Act 1995; and

(iii) this bill would implement Recommendations 1 and 2 of the Committee's report, but the Government has refused to implement Recommendation 4, which is to amend the Criminal Code Act 1995 "to allow Australian citizens to request an exemption from the Minister for Foreign Affairs to travel to a declared area for reasons not listed in section 119.2, but which are not otherwise illegitimate under Australian Law"; and

(b) calls on the Government to implement Recommendation 4 of the Committee's unanimous and bipartisan report".