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Intelligence Services Legislation Amendment 2023

✦ Plain-English Summary

# Intelligence Services Legislation Amendment Bill 2023

## What it does
This bill updates the rules that govern Australia's intelligence agencies (like ASIO and ASIS) and the bodies that oversee them. It makes changes across multiple laws to modernise how these agencies operate, report to Parliament, and handle information.

## Why it matters
The oversight bodies that check on our intelligence agencies will get clearer powers and responsibilities, which can help ensure spying and intelligence gathering stays within legal bounds. However, the bill also appears to give intelligence agencies more flexibility in how they handle certain information and evidence.

## Key details

- **Who it affects:** Intelligence agency staff, the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security (who watches over them), the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Law Enforcement, and ultimately any Australian whose data might be collected.

- **Main areas covered:** The bill rewrites sections of at least 15 different laws, including privacy laws, telecommunications interception rules, and border force powers. It also connects intelligence laws to the new National Anti-Corruption Commission.

- **Timing is complicated:** The bill has multiple "commencement dates" depending on when other related laws come into effect—suggesting this is part of a larger government push to reshape how intelligence and oversight work together.

**Bottom line:** This is a significant restructuring of intelligence agency accountability, but the full impact depends on regulations and how agencies actually use their new powers.

Official Description

Amends the: Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security Act 1986 and Intelligence Services Act 2001 to: expand the jurisdictions of the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) and the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security (PJCIS) to include the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC), the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre, the Australian Federal Police and the Department of Home Affairs; provide that the PJCIS may review proposed counter-terrorism and national security legislation, and all such expiring legislation; enable the PJCIS to request the IGIS to conduct an inquiry into certain operational activities of the agencies within the IGIS’s jurisdiction; clarify the legislation which enables the PJCIS to request a briefing from the Independent National Security Legislation Monitor; clarify the IGIS’s complaints jurisdiction; and make technical amendments; Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security Act 1986 and Office of National Intelligence Act 2018 to require the IGIS and the Office of National Intelligence to provide annual briefings to the PJCIS; Parliamentary Joint Committee on Law Enforcement Act 2010 to require the IGIS to provide annual briefings to the committee; Administrative Appeals Tribunal Act 1975 to amend the review and access of ACIC criminal intelligence assessment records; and Criminal Code Act 1995 to include an exemption from civil and criminal liability for defence officials and others for certain computer-related conduct. Also makes consequential amendments to 15 Acts.

Committee Referrals

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

Full bill PDF →APH page →

Audit History

Introduced

22 June 2023

Last updated on APH

10 Apr 2026

Last checked by Crossbench

today

Next review

in 1 weeks

Full text indexed

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