Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

The opposition will not be supporting the suspension motion moved by the Leader of the Australian Greens. I do note, however, the statement from the minister that the Attorney-General will pay close attention to what is said in this chamber in relation to this matter and I would make a number of points.

The first is this: this is obviously a matter which has garnered considerable attention in the Australian community. The Attorney-General did issue a short statement last night in which he confirmed he was responsible for the issuing of warrants which the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation later executed on addresses in Canberra. In that statement the Attorney-General asserted that the actions he took would not affect or impede the current arbitration between Australia and Timor-Leste at The Hague.

These are important matters. They do go to the integrity of the rule of law, and for that reason the opposition does believe that the Senate—the parliament, and through them the Australian people—would benefit from a statement from the Attorney-General on this matter. However, we are not prepared on this occasion to support an interruption to the orderly proceedings of the Senate in the manner proposed by the Australian Greens. We will always take a responsible and considered approach in matters of national security. But again I reiterate that I encourage the Attorney-General to consider the merits of making an appropriate statement to the parliament.