{"id":"BILL-r7338","name":"Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Amendment Bill (No. 1) 2025","slug":"australian-security-intelligence-organisation-amendment-bill-no-1-2025","collection":"bill","jurisdiction":"commonwealth","status":"in_force","isInForce":true,"actNumber":null,"makingDate":null,"administeringDepartment":null,"currentVersion":{"id":446031,"registerId":"commonwealth-BILL-r7338-current","compilationNumber":null,"startDate":"2026-05-05","status":"royal_assent","reasons":null,"registeredAt":null},"sections":[],"analysis":{"summary":{"status_summary":"The bill received royal assent on 5 September 2025 and is now Act No. 41 of 2025.","complexity_score":2,"likely_questions":["What is the new expiry date for the compulsory questioning powers?","Does this bill make any other changes to the ASIO Act?"],"complexity_factors":["single amendment extending a sunsetting date","amendment to national security legislation"],"plain_english_summary":"The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Amendment Bill (No. 1) 2025 amends the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Act 1979 to extend the operation of the compulsory questioning warrant framework for a further 18 months. This framework is contained in Division 3 of Part III of the Act.\n\nThe extension changes the sunsetting date of the framework from 7 September 2025 to 7 March 2027. This allows the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation to continue accessing the powers while more comprehensive changes are progressed in a separate bill.\n\nThe compulsory questioning powers enable the organisation to obtain warrants authorising the compulsory questioning of individuals on matters relating to espionage, politically motivated violence and acts of foreign interference. The framework also covers related powers such as apprehension and search, as well as the supervision of questioning by prescribed authorities.\n\nThis bill affects the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation by ensuring continued access to these powers. It also affects individuals who may be questioned under the warrants and the prescribed authorities responsible for overseeing the process.\n\nThe extension is provided to maintain the existing framework during the development of more substantive reforms. These reforms are set out in the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Amendment Bill (No. 2) 2025, which includes proposals to remove the sunset provision and expand the grounds for questioning to include matters such as sabotage and promotion of communal violence.\n\nThe bill was introduced in the House of Representatives on 23 July 2025. It passed the House on 31 July 2025 and the Senate on 4 September 2025. It received royal assent on 5 September 2025, becoming Act No. 41 of 2025.\n\nThe amendments commence the day after royal assent. This means the compulsory questioning warrant framework will continue to operate until 7 March 2027. Legal practitioners and intelligence agencies should refer to the updated legislation for the current operation of these powers."},"flash_summary":{"complexity_score":2,"scope_assessment":{"changed":true,"description":"The amendment does not broaden the legal powers in Division 3; it extends their duration. Compared to the original legislative design (which included a sunset intended to make the compulsory questioning framework temporary), the factual scope of the law has effectively expanded over time through repeated extensions: the sunsetting date has been extended on multiple occasions and this Act again postpones termination (it substitutes 7 March 2027 for the previous 7 September 2025 in section 34JF). In that sense the life‑span of the regime has grown beyond the original temporary horizon, even though this particular Act does not alter substantive powers or procedures."},"complexity_factors":["Single amendment: one item (Schedule 1, item 1) replacing a single date in section 34JF.","No new defined terms introduced.","No changes to procedures, authorisations or offences in Division 3 — only temporal change.","Commencement is straightforward (day after Royal Assent).","Minimal cross-references: amendment only touches the existing sunsetting provision."],"plain_english_summary":"**What this Act does (mechanics)\n\n- This Act changes one line in the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Act 1979: it replaces the date in section 34JF so that Division 3 (the ASIO compulsory questioning warrant framework) will continue to operate until 7 March 2027 instead of 7 September 2025.  (See Schedule 1, item 1; amendment to section 34JF.)\n\n- The amendment takes effect the day after the Act receives Royal Assent.\n\nWho is affected\n\n- ASIO (the agency): retains the ability to seek and rely on compulsory questioning warrants under Division 3 for an additional 18 months.\n- The Attorney‑General and the Director‑General of Security: continue to play their existing roles in authorising and issuing questioning warrants (Director‑General requests; Attorney‑General approves under the Division 3 framework described in the ASIO Act).\n- People who may be the subject of compulsory questioning warrants: the extension keeps in place a legal regime that can compel appearance, production of things, and questioning in specified national‑security matters (including the rights, obligations and criminal penalties that accompany those powers under Division 3).\n- Law enforcement and prescribed authorities (those who supervise questioning): continue operating under the current Division 3 processes and obligations.\n\nWhy it matters (stated purpose, then tested against trade‑offs)\n\n- Stated purpose: the Explanatory Memorandum says the extension is to \"allow ASIO to continue to access Division 3 powers while more substantive reforms to Division 3 progress through Parliament.\"\n\n- Practical effects and trade‑offs:\n  - Maintains the status quo: the extension does not change the content or scope of Division 3 powers — it only delays the sunsetting of those powers until March 2027 (section 34JF as amended).  Whoever would have been authorised or affected under the existing rules remains so authorised or affected for the extra 18 months.\n  - Who pays / who bears risk: the primary immediate cost is borne by people who could be subjected to compulsory questioning and related enforcement measures, because their exposure to those powers continues. Administrative costs to government continue (ASIO, Attorney‑General's Office, police for warrant execution).  The measure preserves the benefits to ASIO and to national‑security actors of continued access to compulsory questioning warrants.\n  - Incentives and opportunity cost: by extending the sunset rather than deciding the substantive policy now, Parliament delays a final decision on whether to make the powers permanent, to reform them, or to let them lapse. That postponement benefits parties that value continuity (ASIO and supporting agencies) and imposes an opportunity cost on those who prefer repeal or reform (they must wait longer for legislative change).  It also creates an incentive for incremental extensions rather than immediate comprehensive resolution.\n  - Implementation and oversight risk: the amendment keeps in place an existing framework that has been repeatedly extended (the Bill materials note five prior extensions). Repeated short extensions risk making a temporary power effectively long‑term by attrition without a single definitive decision. The extension preserves existing oversight and reporting obligations in the ASIO Act; it does not itself add new oversight mechanisms.\n  - Compliance burden and discretion: the Act does not alter individual legal duties or the decision‑makers’ discretions under Division 3 — it simply keeps them alive for longer. Those duties include obligations on persons subject to warrants and the role of prescribed authorities and the Attorney‑General in authorising and supervising warrants (as described in Division 3).\n\nSource grounding and limits of this Amendment\n\n- This Act is a single technical amendment to the sunset date in section 34JF. It does not expand or narrow the list of matters on which questioning may be authorised, nor does it change who may be appointed as a prescribed authority or the warrant authorisation process. More substantive changes to Division 3 are dealt with in separate legislation (discussed in the explanatory material), but are not part of this Act.\n\nConcise takeaway\n\n- Mechanically: one date is changed so ASIO’s compulsory questioning framework remains law until 7 March 2027.\n- Practically: it prolongs the current regime (benefit to ASIO and national‑security operations) and prolongs exposure for individuals who could be compelled to attend or produce material (cost to those individuals), while deferring a definitive parliamentary decision on reform or repeal.\n"}},"importantCases":[],"_links":{"self":"/api/acts/australian-security-intelligence-organisation-amendment-bill-no-1-2025","history":"/api/acts/australian-security-intelligence-organisation-amendment-bill-no-1-2025/history","analysis":"/api/acts/australian-security-intelligence-organisation-amendment-bill-no-1-2025/analysis","conflicts":"/api/acts/australian-security-intelligence-organisation-amendment-bill-no-1-2025/conflicts","importantCases":"/api/acts/australian-security-intelligence-organisation-amendment-bill-no-1-2025/important-cases","documents":"/api/acts/australian-security-intelligence-organisation-amendment-bill-no-1-2025/documents"}}