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🏛 House of Representatives3 readingsAmendments circulated

Intelligence Oversight and Other Legislation Amendment (Integrity Measures) 2020

✦ Plain-English Summary

# Intelligence Oversight and Other Legislation Amendment (Integrity Measures) Bill 2020

## What it does
This bill strengthens the rules around how Australia's spy agencies (like ASIO) are watched over and held accountable. It gives the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security—the official watchdog—stronger powers to investigate what these agencies are doing and access their records more easily.

## Why it matters
Right now, if you think an intelligence agency has broken the law or acted unfairly, there's limited oversight to check it. Beefing up the watchdog's powers means Australians have a clearer path to complain and get independent investigations into potential abuse of power by spy agencies.

## Key details

- **The watchdog gets real teeth**: The Inspector-General can now compel intelligence agencies to hand over documents and information without delay, making it harder for them to dodge scrutiny.

- **Whistleblower protections**: The bill updates rules protecting people who blow the whistle on wrongdoing inside spy agencies, so they're less likely to face retaliation for speaking up.

- **Coordination with other watchdogs**: The changes sync up oversight rules across multiple agencies (the Ombudsman, the Australian Human Rights Commission, and others) so there's less confusion about who investigates what.

- **Staged rollout**: Some changes depend on other related laws passing first, so full implementation will happen in phases rather than all at once.

Official Description

Amends: the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security Act 1986 to: extend the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security's (IGIS) jurisdiction to the intelligence functions of the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission and the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC); streamline the IGIS's reporting procedures; make technical amendments to clarify the operation of the Act, modernise drafting expressions and remove redundant provisions; and make amendments contingent on the commencement of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Amendment Act 2020 ; the Intelligence Services Act 2001 to extend the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security's jurisdiction to the intelligence functions of AUSTRAC; 17 Acts to make consequential amendments; the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 and Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security Act 1986 to make amendments contingent on the commencement of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2020 ; and nine Acts to make amendments contingent on the commencement of the Surveillance Legislation Amendment (Identify and Disrupt) Act 2020 .

Committee Referrals

Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security; Senate Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills

Full bill PDF →APH page →

Audit History

Introduced

9 Dec 2020

Last updated on APH

10 Apr 2026

Last checked by Crossbench

yesterday

Full text indexed

yesterday

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