Just in time for Christmas – deadline is December 18

The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security has terms of reference for the inquiry announced in September (CMM September 1).

The TOR are largely in-line with issues raised by Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton in an August 31 letter to committee chair Andrew Hastie (Lib-WA). They ensure the committee can investigate just about every possibility of foreign involvement in teaching, research, funding and campus life.

And there will be direct questions for institutions, agencies and lobbies with the committee considering; “the sector’s awareness of foreign interference, undisclosed foreign influence, data theft and espionage, and its capacity to identify and respond to these threats.”

This is a big deal indeed, the committee is powerful and respected, members are not given to expressions of outrage, as occasionally occurs in other parliamentary inquiries. Whatever the committee concludes will be considered seriously by government and the security community.

Submissions to the inquiry are due December 18, presumably with hearings in the new year. Mr Dutton suggests that, “the committee should, as far as possible conduct its inquiry in public.”

More oversight

This is not the week’s only news of extra oversight the HE and research community will face. The proposed federal integrity commission will cover universities and research agencies that are funded by the Commonwealth (CMM yesterday).