Michael Keenan (Stirling, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Justice, Customs and Border Protection) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy Speaker, I will do that. I was obeying your ruling when I was referring to the budget, of course, because the budgetary process has dealt explicitly with the agencies that are the subject of this bill. I say to the member for Shortland that if she wants to confirm that what I am saying is correct she can go and check the budget papers. Alternatively, she could just take my word for it. I can certainly tell the member for Shortland that border protection is an integral part of what these intelligence agencies are now required to respond to because of her government's failure on that issue.

If you look at what the budget has done to these agencies, you will see that their ability to do the other parts of the job they are required to do will have catastrophic circumstances. For example, the member for Shortland might like to note that in the budget Labor has cut $6.9 million to ASIO, one of the agencies that is subject to this bill—

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