Andrew Bartlett (Queensland, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

Can I say at the outset that the Democrats will support the second reading stage of the Copyright Amendment Bill 2006, but we do believe it needs significant amendment before it should be passed into law. I note that the government yesterday circulated 12 pages of amendments, a total of 63 amendments, and a supplementary explanatory memorandum that goes some way to addressing the many and varied concerns that were raised during the extremely brief investigation by the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs into this legislation. The Democrats have also circulated one or two amendments; I will go to those shortly.

I think it does have to be put on the record how unsatisfactory this stage of the process is, as I unfortunately find myself saying far too often. The role of this chamber as a law-making body, as a legislature, is not being given due regard. I do not think it has ever really been given proper regard by the media or the general public. I think there is a lack of recognition of how important the law-making role of a house of parliament is. But that has deteriorated significantly since the government got control of the Senate. In most cases, though not all, I think it is seen as little more than an annoying, mildly irritating little process that we have to go through for form’s sake.

I do note that many components of this bill are the result of quite long periods of consultation. To be balanced, I congratulate the government on having conducted quite wide-ranging consultation—discussion papers, forums, exposure drafts and the like. But, having done all that, I think it makes it all the more unfortunate that when you get right to the pointy end, right to the crunch, we suddenly have this mad rush.

The simple fact is, as the evidence given by the department to the Senate committee inquiry showed, that there is no mad rush for the bulk of this legislation. The only components that do need to be put through before the end of the year are those that ensure compliance with the Australia-US Free Trade Agreement, and I will come back to that in a moment. But there are a range of other areas that are not linked to that and, from the point of view of getting it right—not having arguments about the policy intent but just getting the law right—we would all be much better served by it not being rushed. The entire Australian community and all of the many stakeholders in this law would be much better served if we could have scrutinised this properly to ensure that it was as close to right as possible before it became law. Whilst the key stakeholders are copyright holders in educational institutions, writers, performers, publishers, software companies and those sorts of groups, this law will affect in many ways the vast majority of the Australian community. This is complex copyright law, and in some ways it seems arcane copyright law, but it is not a matter that affects just a small percentage of people. It has a direct and significant impact on small but important sections of the community, including the education sector and a range of businesses. Its flow-on effects literally do affect the entire Australian community, so it is important that we get it right.

There is a growing indication, as increasingly shown in practice, that this government is more interested in getting things through than it is in getting things right. The Senate committee process that followed was derisory; it was little short of a disgrace. The people who contributed to the inquiry—the people in the community who have the expertise, who actually work with the law on a day-to-day basis, who know its practical implications—pretty much all said, without fail, that the process was seriously flawed in its failure to give adequate time to examine the legislation. So, whilst I think the Senate committee across-the-board, from all parties, did a very good job—as the legal and constitutional committee does almost without fail—it was still only able to look at the issues that were brought before it. I certainly have had people raise with me since then, as I imagine other senators have, issues that they did not get the opportunity to raise in full detail during the Senate inquiry process.