Australian spy agency gains extended power to secretly question people

It takes a certain kind of issue to unite the parliament's most conservative members with its most progressive members.

But that was what occurred last week, as figures like Liberal Senator Alex Antic and One Nation's Malcolm Roberts sat down with the Greens in the Senate to vote against prolonged powers for Australia's domestic spy agency.

The bill extended a contentious remit held by ASIO for more than two decades that essentially allows it, in certain circumstances, to force people to answer questions.

It was an idea introduced in the wake of the 2001 September 11 attacks, and the 2002 Bali bombing, to bolster ASIO's counter-terror tools.

They have been used sparingly since then — just 20 times in more than 20 years — but have been regularly extended, and even expanded since then.

Legislation that went before the Senate last week wound up passing with the broad support of both Labor and the Coalition.

But it was furiously opposed by some of the most progressive and conservative voices in federal parliament, including Senator Antic, a far-right figure who crossed the floor against his colleagues.

"In a free society, the state shouldn't be handed an open-ended power to compel citizens to answer questions about speech or association that falls short of actual criminality," he said.

It was a speech immediately followed by Greens Senator David Shoebridge, who had a similar message.

"If this legislation gets through, Australians will have a right to fear their own government — because whenever the government chooses to, it can pluck you off the street," he said.

ASIO itself describes its compulsory questioning tool as "unique and critical".

In effect, it allows the domestic spy agency to ask the attorney-general to agree to issue a warrant to require anyone over 14 years old to answer ASIO's questions.

The questioning itself is different to an ordinary police interview, and is supposed to be used as something of a last resort.

While a person is compelled to answer questions put to them by an ASIO agent, the answers cannot then be used as evidence against them.