Login
New ASIO guidelines do not address key concerns, LCA says
The sweeping new guidelines for ASIO and its spies may contain some improvements, but it also fails to address several key concerns relating to client legal privilege.
Naomi Neilson
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has released sweeping guidelines relating to ASIO and its spies which will govern the use of force used during an interrogation and ensure officers are responsible for informing the Inspector-General of illegally collected data.
LCA president Pauline Wright said that this would expose information subjected to client legal privilege or relating to journalists and their sources of health information.
“There is no specific guidance of bulk personal data, lawyers’ attendance at interviews or how ASIO officers should interpret ‘acts of foreign interference’ as set in legislation.”
LCA’s second concern is that there is inadequate guidance on proportionality and how an ASIO officer would assess the level of intrusiveness when it came to surveillance.
Ms Wright said given recent major expansions to ASIO’s powers – including encryption legislation passed in 2018 and proposed amendments before Parliament to extend the compulsory questioning devices – proportionality “has never been more important”.
“The guidelines fail to give the public an understanding of how any degree of intrusion will be assessed by ASIO,” Ms Wright said. “It also means the guidelines don’t provide a clear benchmark to promote consistency of decision-making by ASIO and oversight by the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security.”
“These guidelines provide a blueprint for the administrative process with ASIO and it is imperative that they still instil public confidence in the activities of the organisation.”
Naomi Neilson
Naomi Neilson is a senior journalist with a focus on court reporting for Lawyers Weekly.
You can email Naomi at:
