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

I am incredibly disappointed but not at all surprised, because that is the same brick wall we ran into with the officers of the department, the same ones who are advising you tonight—'It is just tremendously important. We cannot tell you exactly why but it is important. You will just need to trust us that, operationally, something or other needs to happen behind the scenes so that undisclosed organisations can now be tracked by our clandestine surveillance agency.' It is going to make it monstrously difficult for the oversight agencies and offices like the IGIS to determine whether or not they are acting unlawfully because henceforth it is going to be impossible to tell. If we have landed at the same point of stalemate as we did in the estimates committee and in the committee hearing into this bill, I will proceed to the amendments that I have circulated on sheet 7102.