Nick Xenophon (SA, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to indicate very briefly that I cannot support this amendment because I am concerned that it will really cause problems in the system. I appreciate Senator Fielding’s intentions in relation to this, but the problem I have with it is that the issue is one of privacy, whether you are a medical practitioner or not. As long as there are sufficient privacy safeguards and they are built into the system, I think that provides a sufficient safeguard. I am worried, for instance, about the medical practitioner having to photocopy the documents, because that is what it would mean. It goes too far. I appreciate Senator Fielding’s intentions in relation to this, but I would have thought it could be dealt with by ensuring that there are strong privacy safeguards in the regulations. That is something that ought to be appropriately scrutinised.