George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Fawcett for his question and acknowledge Senator Fawcett's very deep knowledge of and interest in national security matters. Senator Fawcett may be interested to know that overnight the Director of National Intelligence, General Clapper, did give evidence to the American Senate's Committee on Armed Services about threats to national security, identifying two in particular. The second was the disclosures of the traitor Edward Snowden, which he described as having caused 'profound damage'. As a consequence, General Clapper said, 'the nation is less safe and its people less secure.' He went on to say about Snowden's disclosures:

As a result, we’ve lost critical foreign intelligence collection sources, including some shared with us by valued partners.

That, of course, includes Australia.

Terrorists … are going to school on U.S. intelligence sources, methods and tradecraft, and the insights they are gaining are making our job much, much harder. And this includes putting the lives … at risk

I agree with what General Clapper had to say. I think it is purely a coincidence, but a remarkable coincidence, that I was taken to task by Senator Ludlam, his party's spokesman on these matters, for using the very same phrase—that the Snowden treachery put lives at risk—in answer to a question from Senator Ludlam yesterday. Nobody should make light of the gravity, seriousness and threat to the Western world in particular, to the democratic world, including Australia, of the treachery of Edward Snowden.