Politicians should avoid ¡°overreach¡± when they impose security-related legislation on universities, according to Australia¡¯s former first law officer and high commissioner to London. And national security issues are no more fraught than they were four years ago, when George Brandis left parliament.

¡°There are some politicians who would happily pass very draconian laws and say to the public, ¡®we¡¯re doing this to keep you safe¡¯,¡± said Mr Brandis, who has been appointed professor in the practice of national security at the Australian National University (ANU). ¡°That¡¯s not a responsible attitude.

¡°Protecting public safety [is] extremely important. Not overreaching, and limiting that protection to what [is] necessary to be efficacious, [is] equally important.¡±

As a long-standing attorney general in the coalition government, which was ousted from office in last month¡¯s election, Mr Brandis had ministerial responsibility for domestic national security policy. He oversaw the intelligence agency Asio and served on the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security.

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Perceived threats to Australia¡¯s security, particularly from China, have escalated since Mr Brandis left politics in 2018 to become Australia¡¯s top diplomat in the UK. But he said national security issues were no more challenging than they had been during his time as attorney-general, when the terrorist threat environment had been ¡°elevated by Asio¡±.

¡°It¡¯s always hard,¡± said Mr Brandis, who takes up his position at ANU¡¯s??on 1 July. ¡°The more serious the threat, the harder it is. But that shouldn¡¯t affect the principles you adopt ¨C to give the agencies the powers they need to keep people safe, while¡­not forgetting about the importance of keeping those laws as limited as efficacy permits.¡±

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Mr Brandis declined to comment on whether that balance had been struck in the current security rules pertaining to universities. ¡°I¡¯ve been away for four years, and I don¡¯t have a detailed knowledge of where the regulatory framework sits right now.¡± But he said protection of intellectual property was a straightforward ¡°enforcement issue¡±, particularly in cases where research had been published.

¡°It¡¯s essentially a question of how to apply the existing acts of parliament, like the Copyright Act. And if something is in the public domain¡­issues of theft don¡¯t arise.¡±

But the risk of ¡°dual use¡± ¨C where research undertaken with benign intentions was harnessed for nefarious purposes ¨C was a ¡°more complicated¡± question. ¡°When I was drafting [Australia¡¯s]?foreign interference laws, I found their impact on universities potentially to be one of the most difficult areas,¡± Mr Brandis said.

¡°Universities, particularly great universities, depend on international collaborative partnerships and sharing research findings, sometimes in quite sensitive areas. We can¡¯t tie the hands of universities in their international collaborations. But¡­there are some universities in some other countries¡­whose use of that collaboration may be inimical to Australia¡¯s interests.¡±

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While declining to say whether he was ¡°comfortable¡± with universities¡¯ management of this dilemma, Mr Brandis endorsed their approach of developing a?code?in consultation with Australian government agencies.

¡°Governments and universities have made a very conscientious attempt to mitigate risk. That¡¯s not a fail-safe position. But the problem some years ago was indifference to ¨C or even ignorance of ¨C risk. I think that is gone. There¡¯s not indifference to, and certainly not ignorance of, risk. There has been a front-of-mind attempt to address and mitigate it, which is a good thing.¡±

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com