Zoe Daniel (Goldstein, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I rise simply to say that I will be supporting the government's amendments. I thank the Attorney-General and his office for their engagement particularly on the issue of journalist and source protection. A free press is critical to our democracy. I believe there were some gaps in the original iteration of this bill which have been resolved with the government's amendments. This particularly goes to protection of journalists' sources. We do not want journalists to be caught up in investigations and penalised for doing their jobs, and I'm hopeful these amendments resolve those issues in part. I continue to be concerned about journalists potentially being caught up in legal action when they receive leaked documents; this is an issue I'm continuing to press with the government.

I also thank the Attorney-General for resolving the issue of warrants. Having Federal Court judges being responsible for the issuing of warrants is an important safety net in this bill, particularly for media organisations which we have seen raided inappropriately in the past; that's something we don't want to see again.

Question agreed to.

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