Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I remind the member for Fairfax, his fellow Independents and the minor party members up there on the crossbenches that it has never been the practice of any government in this country to comment on the specifics of operational intelligence matters. I also make the point that no-one's phone can be tapped—no-one's conversations can be listened into—without a specific warrant. Our intelligence services, both here and abroad, operate under the very strictest of safeguards. Firstly, there is the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Security and Intelligence and, secondly, there is the Inspector-General of Security and Intelligence. So I can assure the member for Fairfax that he can speak in peace, so to speak, without any fear that anything untoward is going on.

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