Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Stott Despoja will not be surprised that I am not supporting the amendment. There is some joy later on, though; I can see significant merit in some of the later amendments. One of the difficulties in this process—by way of explanation rather than complaint—is the argument about real-time and stored communication. This bill introduces a stored communication regime that came from Mr Blunn. He saw the matter as necessary, he put a distinction in and he then, in the independent review, came up with a regime that included this type of outcome. When you look at the sense of it, with SMSs, stored communication and emails the real difference that strikes you is that there is a point where you do not have to send it. There is a point where you do not have to press the button. There is a point—no matter how short or long—where you can reflect upon the message before you send it.

Unfortunately, with live communication, with voice, you cannot review it after you have said it and choose not to say it. It has been said. There is no point where you can press the button—although many a time in front of a journalist I suspect I might have wanted to do precisely that. There is no consideration; there is no seven-second delay that allows me to review it. Effectively, Mr Blunn was saying the regime would provide adequate protection of stored communication in the way that he proposed. With the committee’s recommendations, it would provide this. By not picking up all of the recommendations, I think that the government falls short of ensuring that the regime provides sufficient protection and a balance between protecting people’s privacy and effective law enforcement. I think that increasing imprisonment from three to seven years does not add that protection; supporting the recommendations of the committee does. This is a matter that got some consideration by the committee but is not one that Labor would sufficiently support. It was not recommended and therefore it does not find our favour. We will not be supporting it.