Kate Chaney (Curtin, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to back this amendment. It's really vital that we have a frank and fearless media, and that's part of the work that we need to do to rebuild trust in government. The ABC and SBS are in a different position to other media outlets, in that they are both Commonwealth public servants and they are in the business of reporting the news and potentially exposing corruption. So I'm very supportive of this amendment.

I don't think it's the intention of the government or of the legislation to put those journalists in a difficult position. There is at the moment a risk that they could be investigated for corrupt conduct for receiving documents in the course of doing their job in reporting the news. This amendment addresses that, for clarity, to ensure that it can't be used for that unintended purpose. The fundamental aim of the legislation is to strengthen our institutions, and this amendment is consistent with doing that for the purpose of ensuring that the public can see what's going on in government.

See this speech in context