ASIO’s “Police State” Compulsory Questioning Powers to Be Made Permanent

Legislation set to make ASIO’s “compulsory questioning powers” permanent is before the Senate, after passing the lower house in mid-February 2026. And that it is Labor championing this reform, which will further broaden the scope of the nation’s chief spying agency’s ability to question non-suspects for up to 24 hours, reveals just how far to the right our entire government edifice has shifted.

Introduced on 23 July 2025, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Amendment Bill (No. 2) 2025 seeks to make permanent a set of laws so controversial that they’ve been subject to a sunset clause ever since, which has meant that the 2003-enacted laws have been debated and renewed every 3 to 5 years.

Home Affairs minister Tony Burke further extended the regime’s life to 7 March 2027, with a separate bill he introduced at the same time last year as the broader reform legislation before parliament now.

ASIO’s questioning regime is one of the most controversial laws ever passed in Australia, and it was subject to 15 months of debate. And after further reforms, the laws today permit the ASIO director general to obtain a warrant to haul in non-suspects as young as 14, for questioning related to espionage, politically motivated violence and foreign interference for up to a cumulative 24 hours.

These laws are part of the over 100 pieces of national security/counterterrorism legislation that successive Australian governments have passed with bipartisan support since the 9/11 New York terror attacks, which had been in line with a September 2001 UN Security Council resolution calling for such lawmaking globally.

And these laws have been eroding the rights of all in this country, regardless of whether these individual constituents have any desire to commit an act of terrorism.

The reason Labor initially resisted these laws for 15 months is that spying agencies have all-pervasive powers to permit the gathering of intelligence, which the citizenry is not supposed to be subjected to. And as that same party is now attempting to turn these measures it had once termed “police state” powers into permanent law, this reveals the once centre left party now completely right.

Expanding a draconian regime

“Since its introduction, the framework has been subject to five parliamentary reviews and two independent reviews, causing the parliament to extend the sunset date five times,” said home affairs minister Burke, during his 23 July 2025 second reading speech on the bill.

“Removing the sunset provision reflects the government’s view that these powers now form an essential part of ASIO’s collection powers, particularly in light of the threat environment.”

The home affairs minister further explains that his office is seeking to expand the regime, which sits under part 3 division 3 of the Australian Security Intelligence Agency Act 1979 (Cth) (the ASIO Act) in a number of ways, as well as to make it permanent.

The initial regime in 2003 permitted civilians, as young as 16, to be brought in for questioning in relation to matters related to terrorism offences. But in 2020, then home affairs minister Peter Dutton dropped the age of those permitted to be hauled in to 14 years of age, and minors can only be questioned in relation to politically motivated violence, which includes terrorism, to this day.

Dutton’s 2020 overhaul also resulted in the 2003-enacted ASIO detention regime, that had accompanied the questioning measures, being dropped, whilst the then minister further expanded the questioning regime for adults so that it included politically-motivated violence, along with espionage and acts of foreign interference.

Under the regime as it now sits, both minors and adults can be questioned for up to a cumulative 24 hours, although adults can be questioned for up to 8 hours at a time before a break is required, whereas for minors, this can only be for up to a 2 hour sitting.

Burke is currently seeking to extend the scope of what sort of matters can be the subject of compulsory questioning, so that the regime would further include sabotage, promotion of communal violence and attacks on Australia’s defence system, as well as a further category relating to “the protection of Australia’s territorial and border integrity from serious threats”.

The minister too made clear that the new measures have been predicated on the 2025 Annual Threat Assessment that was delivered by ASIO director general Mike Burgess and outlined that it is anticipated that multiple threats against this country will likely intensify over the following five years, as the nation’s security environment becomes “more dynamic, more diverse and more degraded”.

Compelled to answer through threat of prison

The compulsory questioning regime is further controversial, as it permits the ASIO boss to request an adult questioning warrant or a minor questioning warrant from the Australian attorney general in relation to a person who may not be suspected of any crime, but can be as young as 14.

Australian federal police officers are able to go out and apprehend these people if necessary, and then they’re compelled to answer the questions put to them.

Subsection 34GD(3) of the ASIO Act makes it an offence for the subject of a questioning warrant to refuses to “give any information” or “produce a record or a thing”, which carries up to 5 years gaol time. The same section applies the same penalty to further offences of failing to appear in relation to a warrant, or providing false statements during questioning, as well as for providing illegible records.

The civilians that ASIO has decided to haul in for extended questioning in relation to national security matters also face 5 years prison time if they don’t surrender all travel documents if the authorities requested them to or if they leave the country without permission.

The 2020 explanatory memorandum relating to Dutton’s amendments to the regime explained that the legislation would be further “strengthening the right to legal representation during questioning while retaining the ability to prevent contact with specific lawyers due to security concerns, and to remove a lawyer who is unduly disruptive during questioning”.

This resulted in section 34F of the ASIO Act, which provides that an adult’s lawyer may be contacted at any time during the process. A minor must have a representative present during questioning, which can be a lawyer, a parent or a guardian. But if an adult questioning warrant includes an immediate appearance requirement, then a Home Affairs appointed lawyer will cover in the interim.

ASIO can also deny a specific lawyer requested by the subject of a questioning warrant, if that legal practitioner is considered to potentially threaten national security, and a lawyer can be removed during the questioning process, if they’re considered to be disruptive.

Hard left MP morphs into hard right

“This latest assault provides ASIO with the power to arrest, detain and use coercion against people… without legal representation and without access or information provided to family members,” then Labor MP Anthony Albanese told parliament in relation to the ASIO compulsory questions laws, when they were before parliament in March 2003.

“This draconian measure even applies to those not even suspected of any offence. In other words, a person may be detained and questioned by ASIO simply because of the activities of a family friend or a university group of which they were once a member,” the current PM added back then, whilst now he is moving to make a much beefed-up version of the compulsory questioning regime permanent.

The “hard left” politician that Albanese appeared to be two decades ago, further warned that these all-pervasive laws that had been cooked up by the Howard government could be used to mistreat minorities, silence dissent and allow for the detainment of innocent people.

The current PM further added at the time, that whilst combatting terrorism had to be a priority, that could not be done by simply riding roughshod over constituents’ civil liberties.

Only 20 compulsory questioning warrants have ever been issued over the last two decades, whilst when ASIO’s accompanying detention regime was still on the books, it had never been used.

Indeed, ASIO had informed the government in May 2024 that it considered it no longer needed the ability to require 14- to 17-year-olds to undergo compulsory questioning in the current political climate. However, this failed to result in any reform in that regard.

“This bill acknowledges that ASIO’s compulsory questioning powers remain a valuable intelligence collection tool and makes amendments to ensure that ASIO has the powers it needs to operate effectively in an increasingly complex and challenging security environment,” Burke insisted on introducing the legislation mid-last year.

“ASIO has used these powers judiciously in circumstances where ASIO’s other powers were not appropriate for the circumstances,” he added.