Bill
Intelligence Services Amendment (Establishment of the Australian Signals Directorate) Bill 2018
passed, as at 2018-04-11. Defence portfolio.
- Sponsor
- Not recorded
- Portfolio
- Defence
Recorded stages
- introduced — 2018-02-15
- second reading — 2018-02-15
- second reading — 2018-02-28
- second reading — 2018-02-28
- third reading — 2018-02-28
- introduced — 2018-03-19
- second reading — 2018-03-19
- second reading — 2018-03-27
- second reading — 2018-03-28
- second reading — 2018-03-28
- third reading — 2018-03-28
- passed — 2018-03-28
- royal assent — 2018-04-11
Divisions
No divisions recorded. Most questions are decided on the voices; this does not establish that a bill was unopposed.
Plain-language summary
Written by a model from the explanatory memorandum; not the record, as at 2018-02-15.
This bill would turn the Australian Signals Directorate into a standalone body that answers to the Defence Minister rather than sitting inside the Defence Department.
The director-general of the new agency would gain control over its staff and operations, with hiring done outside the usual public service rules, while the agency's remit would grow to cover helping industry and fighting cybercrime.
The bill also moves the Computer Emergency Response Team from the Attorney-General's Department to the new agency and adds a duty for the director-general to brief the Opposition leader.
- It creates the Australian Signals Directorate as a separate statutory agency.
- It expands the agency's functions to include assisting a broader range of bodies and preventing cybercrime.
- It transfers the Computer Emergency Response Team and its cyber policy duties to the new agency.
- It lets the director-general hire staff outside the Public Service Act.
- It adds a new function to protect the agency's specialised technologies.
- It includes transitional provisions for the changeover.
The Australian Signals Directorate, its staff, the Department of Defence, the Attorney-General's Department, and the Opposition leader.
Sources
em
billhome
frl act