Michael Keenan (Stirling, Liberal Party, Minister for Justice) Share this | Hansard source

I appreciate the interest of the member for Melbourne, but I am really not sure how much clearer I can be. ASIO does not access information that is not relevant to their security inquiries. If they do and it is judged by the DG of security not to be relevant, it will be destroyed. I am not sure how long we can continue debating the same point. The government is concerned, as we always are, to protect the privacy of individual Australians. We do not go about with the idea of intruding into people's privacy, and obviously we do not welcome legislation that allows us to do that. We are only taking these measures because of the enhanced risk in the national security environment. We have been very mindful of ensuring that appropriate safeguards continue to exist. In my two previous contributions to the member for Melbourne's point I have raised those safeguards, and I do not propose to do so a third time.

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