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

Thanks, Minister. I do not know how to address these various proposed subsections, but proposed section 19A(1)(a) through to (d) list ASIS, DSD, DIGO and a law enforcement agency. So let us set them aside for the moment, because that I think is in the normal process of the way that these various agencies work. Paragraph (e) states:

an authority of the Commonwealth, or an authority of a State, that is prescribed by the regulations …

and so on, which we have spoken of. This seems reasonably black and white: the answer to the question I put to you before was yes. If the tax office, through the various criteria and processes that we have discussed earlier, needs help from ASIO, for example, to interview somebody for some reason in the national interest, ASIO would be within its power to make somebody available. I put what I am asking in two parts. First of all, is that a correct reading of the way that this act will work?