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

I wish to take the opportunity to thank the gentleman who served as the independent monitor, Mr Bret Walker SC, for his service in that role over the past three years. But to come directly to your question, Senator Edwards, we acknowledge that in that three-year period the independent monitor did some useful work which deserves a response.

Now last night, the shadow Attorney-General, Mr Dreyfus, put out a press release calling attention to the importance of the work of the independent monitor of national security since it was established in 2011. I wonder, therefore, why it was that throughout the entire life of the Labor government, from the time that office was established in 2011 till the Labor Party went out of office in September 2013, it responded to neither of the reports that the Independent National Security Legislation Monitor had published. The independent monitor of national security laws published his first report in December 2011. It was entirely disregarded by the Labor government. He published his second report in December 2012 and by the time the Labor government went out of office that had not been responded to either. We acknowledge good work was done by Mr Walker and we intend to respond to those reports.