Ian Campbell (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment and Heritage) Share this | Hansard source

The critical infrastructure will be determined at the time, relevant to the threat. I know that Senator Brown would like more clarity around that, but obviously threats are hard to predict. I think the concept of critical infrastructure in a terrorism threat situation is not a particularly complex one. To create some sort of list, or even guidelines, as to what it might be would be likely to be playing  into the hands of the people you are trying to defend the country against in a potential threat—which is the situation in which you would require Australian defence forces to become involved.

The other question, as I heard it, was in relation to the involvement of senior ministers. My advice, and the government’s view, is that you clearly need responsibility to be held by key senior ministers in the government who are responsible to this parliament. As I understand it, under the existing law the Prime Minister is the only one who can act as a proxy, effectively, for the Governor-General. That was the original concept. We have broadened it to create a bit more flexibility in the circumstances where the Prime Minister would not be available at short notice. The structure that we have put in place to maintain not only accountability but also a high level of responsibility is that, in effect, you have only members of the National Security Committee of the cabinet—of which clearly the Treasurer is a member. That is the reason why the Treasurer is there. It is not because of his day job as Treasurer; it is because of his job as a member of the National Security Committee.