Field

REPORT 26

An Agreement to extend the period of operation of the Joint Defence Facility at Pine Gap

Joint Standing Committee on Treaties

October 1999

ISBN

Contents

Membership of the Committee v

Recommendations and conclusion vii

1 Introduction 1

Purpose of this report 1

The Pine Gap agreements 1

The Committee's review task 3

2 Seeking information from the Department of Defence 5

The National Interest Analysis 5

Requests for an inspection 6

Private briefings from the Department of Defence 7

Different levels of access to the Joint Defence Facility – Australian and
American elected representatives 8

3 Seeking information from other sources 11

Introduction 11

Purpose of the Facility 12

Telemetry signals 12

Signals from large radars 12

Signals from other satellites 12

Microwave emissions 13

Importance of the Facility 13

Continuing importance of the Facility 14

Australian involvement in the operation of the Joint Defence Facility 15

Transparency vs secrecy 16

The classified agreement 18

Observations on the evidence 19
4 Conclusions and recommendations 21

Introduction 21

The problem exposed by our review 21

Our duty 22

Resolving this issue 23

Concluding comments 24

Appendix A – Extract from Resolution of Appointment 27

Appendix B – Witnesses at the public hearing 29

Appendix C – National Interest Analysis 31

Dissenting Report – Senator the Hon Chris Schacht, Hon Dick Adams MP,
Hon Janice Crosio MP and Kim Wilkie MP 35

Membership of the Committee

Chair	The Hon Andrew Thomson MP
Deputy Chair	Senator Barney Cooney
Members	The Hon Dick Adams MP	Senator Vicki Bourne
	The Hon Bruce Baird MP	Senator the Hon David Brownhill*
	Kerry Bartlett MP	Senator Helen Coonan
	The Hon Janice Crosio MP	Senator Joe Ludwig****
	Kay Elson MP	Senator Brett Mason**
	Laurie Ferguson***	Senator Bill O’Chee*
	Gary Hardgrave MP	Senator the Hon Margaret Reynolds*
	De-Anne Kelly MP	Senator the Hon Chris Schacht
	Kim Wilkie MP****	Senator Tsebin Tchen**

* Until June 1999

** From July 1999

*** Until August 1999

**** From August 1999

Secretariat

Secretary	Grant Harrison
Inquiry Secretary	Cheryl Scarlett

Recommendations and conclusion

Recommendation 1

That the Minister for Defence authorise his departmental officials to provide the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties with:

a classified briefing on the purpose and operation of the Joint Defence Facility;
a copy of the classified agreement that gives operational effect to the Agreement between the Australian Government and the United States Government relating to the Establishment of a Joint Defence Space Research Facility (1966);
on-site access to the Joint Defence Facility at Pine Gap; and
such other information as may be required to enable the Committee to determine if the treaty action is in Australia’s national interest (paragraph 4.21).

Recommendation 2

That the Minister for Defence, in conjunction with the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties, develop a protocol for ensuring constructive parliamentary consideration of sensitive security-related treaties. The protocol should:

identify the full range of sensitive security-related treaties and subsidiary agreements to which Australia is a party;
recognise the legitimacy and importance of the reformed treaty making process;
require that briefings provided to the Committee be comprehensive and at least the equivalent in terms of detail and depth as briefings provided to the ASIO and NCA Committees of the Parliament, provided that such briefings be held in camera; and
empower the Committee to request the relevant Ministers to be present during such briefings to assist the Committee (paragraph 4.22).

Conclusion

The Joint Standing Committee on Treaties:

supports, in principle, the Exchange of Notes constituting an Agreement between Australia and the United States of America to further extend the Agreement relating to the Establishment of the Joint Defence Facility at Pine Gap; and
with the limited evidence made available, finds no reason to object to the continuation of the Joint Defence Facility (paragraph 4.24).