Mark Bishop (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Evidence Amendment (Journalists’ Privilege) Bill 2007 is quite an important piece of legislation. By way of introduction, it is also way overdue. Such legislation has been in operation in New South Wales for the best part of 10 years. That begs the question: how serious is this government in implementing these amendments? I ask that question because the policy behind the amendment is about protecting freedom of information in the public interest. Yet, as we know, this policy is anathema to the current government. The Howard government’s hallmark in this area is to stem and control the flow of information and squash or reduce informed public debate. The government is not interested in transparency or in serious accountability. As we have just seen in the Customs portfolio, it is determined to jail anyone who dares to speak out, even if the information revealed by the whistleblower is correct. The threat of the Crimes Act being applied to whistleblowers is now commonplace—