Intelligence Services Act 2001

A person (including a member) commits an offence if:

the person discloses or publishes any evidence taken by, or the contents of any document produced to, the Committee in a review conducted in private; and

the disclosure or publication is not authorised in writing by:

if the person who gave the evidence or produced the document is a staff member of an agency—the agency head; or

in any other case—the person who gave the evidence or produced the document; and

the disclosure or publication is of evidence, or is of the contents of a document, that has not already been lawfully disclosed or published.

Subclause (1) does not apply to the disclosure or publication by a person of a matter of which the person has become aware otherwise than because of the giving of any evidence before, or the production of any document to, the Committee.

Subclause (1) has effect despite section 2 of the Parliamentary Papers Act 1908.

In this clause:

The Parliamentary Joint Committee on the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (established under the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Act 1979) ceased to exist when the Parliamentary Joint Committee on ASIO, ASIS and DSD was established. However, the records of the earlier Committee were transferred to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on ASIO, ASIS and DSD.