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

I will frame the question a little differently in the context of something that I hesitate to say I know more about—in theory at least—than lawyer-client confidentiality, and that is medical professional confidentiality. Yes, you are right in saying that the content is not the subject of this legislation; it is the metadata. But the metadata includes the heading, for example, in an email. Suppose a doctor emailed somebody, stating, 'Your venereal disease test results'—they did not state what those results were, just simply, 'Your venereal disease test results'—how could it not be a serious imposition on both the doctor and particularly the patient to have that kind of information available without a warrant?