Justice minister Michael Keenan has defended placing greater restrictions on information about control order cases, saying the proposed changes were to protect police sources.
Last Thursday the federal government introduced a fifth tranche of national security legislation aimed at increasing the restrictions a person can be placed under when they are subject to a control order.
Control orders are controversial anti-terrorism powers that allow a person to placed under strict conditions on movement and their associations, but have a much lower standard of proof than for criminal offences.
The new bill, if passed, would mean the the federal government could retrospectively be allowed to bring on secret evidence in ongoing control order hearings that the person who is subject to the order is unable to see. Four control order cases are currently being heard by the federal circuit court.
On Monday Keenan spoke at the Australian federal police headquarters in Sydney, where he had received a briefing from the joint counter-terrorism team on current terrorism investigations.
When asked about the changes to court proceedings, Keenan said: “This is not to reduce the information that people have available to them because we are always keen to provide as much information to people as possible.
“The aim is to protect the delicate sources that are involved in the creation of those control orders.”
At the moment judges have discretion to make non-publication orders as they see fit over proceedings. One control order hearing has been open to the public so far. No details of police sources appear to have been disclosed in the current control order proceedings, and judges have made orders to restrict certain information in proceedings.
When asked whether the changes were aimed at curbing the discretion of judges, Keenan said: “It is not. It’s for us to be able to protect the information we have. It is a careful balancing act that we need to do with these changes. But we cannot have a situation where our sources will be compromised”.
One man who is alleged to have breached the conditions of his control order by calling his mother is currently awaiting trial over the breach.
Keenan said the orders were a form of “enhanced surveillance” and “in the limited circumstances where we have them they have been effective.”
The new control order bill has been referred to the parliamentary intelligence committee for review.
