Andrew Wilkie (Denison, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I have a lot of time for the minister. We are former colleagues and we run the risk of going around the buoys on the river repeatedly. I will not read out again recommendation 41—I have read it out twice this morning—but I will emphasise that it was the overarching recommendation at the end of the 2013 report and that is the context in which all of the other recommendations need to be viewed. Interestingly, recommendation 41 comes at the end of the report. I will read your couple of sentences of the concluding comment:

The Committee has carefully considered each of the reform proposals. Where the committee has recommended draft amendments be made to the acts, these amendments should first be released as an exposure draft for consultation. The Government should expressly seek the views of key stakeholders, including the Independent National Security Legislation Monitor and Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security.

In other words, all members of the committee reserve their right to look at this afresh if and when the proposals are progressed, as they are being progressed today. I am firmly of the view that what is on the table today is being rushed and it is flawed because some parts of the bill are unsatisfactory and because other important reforms are neglected, including the reform contained in my amendments (1) and (2), which are simply to expand the powers of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, to give it oversight of intelligence operations, which does nothing more than to bring the powers of the Australian committee into line with comparable committees in the UK and the US.

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