Bills
Terrorism Legislation Amendment (Extension of Expiry) Bill 2025
Introduction and first reading
Bill introduced, on motion by Mr Reece Whitby (Minister for Police), and read a first time.
Explanatory memorandum presented by the minister.
Second reading speech
Mr Reece Whitby (Baldivis—Minister for Police) (12:24 pm): I move:
That the bill be now read a second time.
The Terrorism Legislation Amendment (Extension of Expiry) Bill 2025 will amend the Terrorism (Extraordinary Powers) Act 2005 (the TEP act) and the Terrorism (Preventative Detention) Act 2006 (the TPD act) to extend the extraordinary counterterrorism powers in those acts to 19 December 2027. The TEP act and the TPD act give effect to a 2005 Council of Australian Governments agreement for all states and territories to enact legislation to introduce measures to prevent terrorist attacks or to preserve evidence following a terrorist act.
The TEP act confers powers on police such as the power to direct the movement of people and vehicles, stop and search a person or vehicle and enter and search a place. It also makes provision for the use of force, including lethal force, and enables the covert entry and search of premises that may be connected to a terrorist act.
The TPD act provides police officers with the ability to obtain a preventative detention order, which allows them to take a person into custody and detain them for a period of up to 14 days in order to prevent a terrorist act from occurring in the near future or preserve evidence of a recent terrorist act.
Due to the extraordinary and potentially intrusive nature of the measures imposed by the terrorism acts, they are subject to a number of checks and balances, including a sunset date. The TEP act is currently set to expire on 19 December 2025 and the TPD act is set to expire on 22 September 2026. The powers conferred by these acts have not been used in Western Australia to date, save for one application for a covert search warrant under the TEP act that was never executed. However, the acts form an integral part of the national security framework and provide police with important legislative tools in the event of a terrorist act.
The national terrorism threat level remains elevated. In August 2024, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation raised the level to "probable", meaning that there is a greater than 50% chance of an attack or attack planning in the next 12 months. At the time, the ASIO director general noted that in the previous four months, there had been eight attacks or disruptions that either involved alleged terrorism or were being investigated as potential acts of terrorism. Several high-profile terrorist acts have been committed in other states in recent months, including the Wakeley church stabbing in Sydney in April 2024, the Adass Israel Synagogue arson attack in Melbourne in December 2024, the Newtown Synagogue attempted arson attack in Sydney in January 2025 and the East Melbourne Synagogue arson attack in July 2025. In Western Australia, the stabbing incident that occurred in Willetton in May 2024 was later determined to have met the criteria to be classified as a terrorist attack, although due to the manner in which the incident unfolded, the extraordinary powers under the TEP act were not used on that occasion.
The Western Australia Police Force is about to commence a statutory review of the TEP act. A statutory review of the TPD act has recently been completed and that review will be tabled in Parliament in the near future. Extending the sunset dates of each act to 19 December 2027 will allow sufficient time for the upcoming review of the TEP act to be concluded and the recommendations from that review and the review of the TPD act to be fully considered for implementation. More comprehensive amendments based on the outcomes of that consideration will then be able to be put to Parliament at a later time.
I commend the bill to the house.
Debate adjourned, on motion by Mr Liam Staltari.
