David Leyonhjelm (NSW, Liberal Democratic Party) Share this | Hansard source

I also commend this amendment to the chamber. What it does is prevent a blank cheque from being provided to ASIO in terms of the number of warrants and the number of computers that can be accessed, because they will be aware that those numbers will be reported in the annual report of the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security. This provides a level of accountability which is currently missing. To my way of thinking, it does not interfere with the operations that are proposed under the ASIO Act but simply reminds ASIO that they are being scrutinised—and if there is one thing that we should never allow to occur, it is security agencies remaining unscrutinised.