Scott Ludlam (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I am a little hurt to hear that Senator Parry thinks the Australian Greens amendments would leave the situation still complicated. And nowhere in the minister’s comments did he address the issue of why we need three separate mechanisms for extending the period of time for which people can disappear. Minister, I wonder if you could, as concisely as you are able, describe for us why we need three mechanism for extending investigative time. As an outsider, I fail to understand why our system has to be this complex. To me it looks very much as though we have a system that has been grafted onto and which has gradually evolved over time as people have added bits and pieces to the legislative framework without any fresh eyes looking at it and saying, ‘Why don’t we just do away with one of these mechanisms for extending time?’ We have one; we have acknowledged the necessity for two; I do not understand why we would need three.