Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

How can the government justify a fine of more than $3,000 for somebody the secretary says has information and has not complied with their wish to get it? How on earth can you abandon the proper process of the rule of law in this country and say that the minister can give this person the ability to put a huge fine like that on another citizen without there being any proper opportunity for an investigation or a plea to put a case? That is Wild West justice, if ever I have heard it! Surely the government has made a mistake here and would want to rectify it. I ask the minister again: is that what was meant when this was written or has this hasty legislation failed a step—that is, the ability of the court to apply such a penalty, not some official appointed by some minister in the future through some secretary unnamed in this legislation?