Kerry Nettle (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I would like to make a short statement. This is a matter that I have been following for some time now—what Australian government officials knew about the rendition and torture of Mamdouh Habib in Egypt. It is a matter that I have followed through all the proper processes with the Senate, with the President and with the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs, to try to get to the bottom of that very important question—what the Australian government and its authorities knew about the transfer of Mamdouh Habib to Egypt and what he experienced there. I was not intending to go on the public record now to talk about the discussions that have occurred in the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee, where I have been putting forward the view that I have put forward in public as well that there needs to be an inquiry so that we can get to the bottom of this matter. That is the view that I have expressed consistently in public, to this Senate and to the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee. I think it is a really important matter that the public needs to understand—what did the Australian government know about the rendition and the torture of an Australia citizen, Mamdouh Habib? And I still want to know the answers to that question and I am going to continue to pursue it.