Stephen Parry (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I indicate at the outset that the coalition will not be supporting the reference proposed by Senator Bob Brown. Senator Brown has spent a fair bit of time talking about the involvement of the Australian Federal Police in this matter, and that is primarily the reason. Senator Brown has highlighted some matters concerning Senate inquiries concurrent with AFP investigations. I might even suggest that some of those might have even been politically charged or motivated. The Reserve Bank of Australia is something that we need to be very careful with and maintain complete independence from. We would suggest that the Australian Federal Police investigation into this matter is appropriate at this time. That would not prevent the matter from being revisited at the conclusion of the Australian Federal Police investigation. That might be a more appropriate time to look at whether a Senate inquiry into this matter is necessary.

There are some interesting factors with this that are slightly more different to some of the matters that Senator Brown mentioned. Firstly, the allegations which have been suggested in relation to this matter may be outside the scope of a Senate inquiry—in particular, with witnesses not being resident or domiciled in Australia. In fact, a number of witnesses—I would suggest most witnesses—might be outside the jurisdiction of the Senate. Therefore, the Australian Federal Police would be a far better organisation to be looking at this. That is notwithstanding any of the international treaties that we currently have. The opposition will not be supporting the reference for those reasons. We believe the Australian Federal Police at this point in time is the most appropriate and qualified agency to be investigating this serious matter.