Number of ministers able to approve terrorism control orders doubles

Source: The Guardian, 12/03/2018

In Dutton’s Home Affairs, even the assistant minister can order
terrorism control orders
Before Dutton’s mega-department the attorney general was responsible
for authorising control orders. Photograph: Mike Bowers for the
Guardian
The creation of Peter Dutton’s Department of Home Affairs has doubled
the number of ministers who can approve terrorism control orders to
four and given the power for the first time to an assistant minister,
Alex Hawke.
The Attorney General’s Department revealed the expansion of ministers
who can approve orders for people to be subject to house arrest and
personal surveillance at Senate estimates on Tuesday evening.
The ministers who can now approve the orders are: the home affairs
minister, Peter Dutton; the assistant minister for home affairs, Alex
Hawke; the minister for citizenship and multicultural affairs, Alan
Tudge; and the minister for law enforcement and cybersecurity, Angus
Taylor.
Labor’s shadow attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, has warned the
revelation shows the creation of the Department of Home Affairs has
watered down checks and balances in counter-terrorism legislation and
there is no clear basis for the ministers to exercise the authority.
Control orders can stop people leaving Australia, communicating with
certain people, accessing technology and force them to remain at a
specified premises for a maximum of 12 hours within a 24-hour period,
wear a tracking device, and report to a police station.
Courts can issue control orders ��` on application by the
Australian
federal police and after ministerial approval ��` against any
person “if it substantially helps prevent a terrorist attack”,
meaning no conviction is required.
Before the creation of Dutton’s mega-department the attorney general
was responsible for authorising control orders, and the justice
minister also had the power.
On Tuesday, Sarah Chidgey, the first assistant secretary of the
Attorney General’s Department, told estimates that authorising one
minister “authorises all ministers in the portfolio to exercise that
power”.
She confirmed it was the first time an assistant minister could
approve control orders.
The assistant minister for science, jobs and innovation, Zed Seselja,
said that Hawke had been “switched over” to the home affairs
department and “wouldn’t have had the powers before”.
Dreyfus told Guardian Australia: “Malcolm Turnbull has handed over
control of the Department of Home Affairs to Peter Dutton, who has
given three junior ministers, none of whom sit on the National
Security Committee, the power to authorise counter-terrorism measures
under the criminal code.”
Peter Dutton says detainees trying to force asylum policy change
“These orders restrict the liberty of Australian citizens and, while
a necessary tool to combat terrorism in specific circumstances, have
only ever been issued by the attorney general in highly sensitive
situations,” he said.
“It is wrong that a junior minister like the minister for citizenship
and multicultural affairs, who has no responsibility for these
national security issues, should be given this significant power
merely as a consequence of departmental restructuring.”
Dreyfus said Labor supported “strong measures to combat terrorism”
and had worked constructively to make national security
legislation “more fit for purpose”.
“In his inept haste to appease the right wing of the Liberal party,
however, Mr Turnbull should not erode the important checks and
balances in our national security system by downgrading approvals for
sensitive counter-terrorism measures to junior ministers.”
The New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties opposes control
orders but its president, Stephen Blanks, said if the state is to
have such a power to detain people it “should be in the hands of the
senior law officer, the attorney general”.
“It is unsatisfactory for the power to approve this order to be in
hands of junior ministers or even senior minister like Peter Dutton,
who is not a lawyer,” he said.