David Johnston (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

You see, that is the problem. I am a little unconvinced because those exemptions are very narrowly drawn, as I said to you earlier this evening. They only concede what are already written into the DSGL The department takes a very narrow view of those exemptions. I do not think it is good enough to say, in the face of this legislation and in the face of what is replicated in US law when there is no such replication in the DSGL, word for word, that what I am seeking to do here is already covered because it is not.

I want to come along on this journey with you but I have to tell you: you're not taking me there when I have the words that they are using and our words are more restrictive than theirs. I am seeking to arrest that, and you are saying, 'No, no, no; those words are okay.' It may be that the roundtable, two-year transitional period and all of the things we are going to do with the last amendment fix that, but I am very much unconvinced if you are telling me those DSGL exemptions are what you are hanging all of this on.