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

Senator Leyonhjelm, I am not aware of the provenance of the statistic you quote—that 70 per cent of investigations are concluded within six months, I think you said. The advice of those who actually do this as specialists in their daily professional lives was that less than two years would compromise a significant number of investigations. My attention has been drawn to a review by the Government of the Netherlands of its data retention regime, which concluded that a six-month retention period was considered unanimously to be too short, particularly so for complex cases. Senator Leyonhjelm, I just want to emphasise this point to you: the law enforcement agencies want this regime established to deal with complex cases—not with mundane or trivial cases, but with complex cases, particularly counter-terrorism, transnational and organised crime, and paedophilia. It is not ordinarily the experience that cases of that complexity—particularly as cases of this kind do often involve actors in multiple jurisdictions—are able to be concluded in so brief a period as six months. That is unrealistic, Senator Leyonhjelm. That was the very firm view of ASIO, of the AFP, and of the state and territory police forces, who came before us. You may say—and you speak from a libertarian perspective—that we should always take with a grain of salt what the policing powers of the state may tell us. Well, up to a point that is true. But I think we should also listen respectfully to the advice of those who have the professional knowledge that, frankly, nobody this chamber has.

The members of the PJCIS, including the Labor members; sober and serious members like Mr Anthony Byrne the then chairman, former Senator Faulkner, and others, considered two years to be not unreasonable. It is consistent with the experience of other jurisdictions. But certainly, the three-month period which you contend for in this amendment—and, by the way, I understand that you have previously said on two occasions that six months was the appropriate period, so you have changed your mind on this—but to suggest that a complex investigation of this kind can be concluded in three months is, frankly, ridiculous.