22nd Nov 2021, 7:39 PM – Senate Security Legislation Amendment (Critical Infrastructure) Bill 2021 - Second Reading - Concerns about ESOs

The majority voted against an amendment to the usual second reading motion. It would have added the words below to the usual second reading motion, which is "that the bill be read for a second time" (parliamentary jargon for agreeing with the main idea of the bill). The amendment was introduced by Victorian Senator Lidia Thorpe (Greens).

Error in Hansard

There appears to be a mix up in the Hansard record between this division and the division on the Counter-Terrorism Legislation Amendment (High Risk Terrorist Offenders) Bill 2021. This amendment was about ESOs, which are part of that other bill.

Amendment text

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

(a) this bill proposes to introduce an extended supervision order regime that would allow a Supreme Court of a state or territory to make orders in relation to a person who has completed a sentence of imprisonment;

(b) the Criminal Code Act 1995 already contains provisions that permit a court to make a similar order in relation to the same category of offender;

(c) the new extended supervision order regime proposed by this bill does not repeal the existing similar provisions;

(d) the extended supervision order regime in this bill departs in very significant ways from the model proposed by the third Independent National Security Legislation Monitor; and

(e) over 70 counter-terrorism laws have passed this Parliament in the last two decades, many of which have not been supported by human rights organisations because they create broad, extensive, and often overlapping powers, as is the case with the regime proposed by this bill".