Sharpening the Learning Curve: Lessons from the Commonwealth Parliamentary Joint Committee of Intelligence and Security Review Experience of Five Important Aspects of Terrorism Laws

The rapid passage of four tranches of far reaching Commonwealth terrorism law has highlighted the review role of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security (PJCIS) and its interactions with and influence over legislative process. This article focuses on five specific legislative examples from these terrorism law reforms. From these five examples, significant deficiencies in content and process are highlighted, raising troubling questions about review methodologies and implications for Australian democracy. The wisdom of the PJCIS exercising a de facto monopoly on Parliamentary review and committee deliberation (including future review of legislative changes it supported) of terrorism legislation is questioned. A model more clearly integrating broader participation and Parliamentary Committee and other review contributions is conducive to a proper functioning of conventional rights protection within legislative process. Reforms of PJCIS review are proposed to those ends.