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

I wish you would not ask me to concede things, because, if I say I concede things to you, it will look as if you have argued me into a corner. I would rather say I acknowledge the point you make. I do acknowledge the point you make, but that is not the reason this provision has been included. The reason this provision has been included is to prevent abuse of the system. Purposeful conduct is the mischief to which we are directing our attention here. I might point out to you that there is not a sole purpose here. Unlike elsewhere in the legislation, there is not a sole purpose test here. So long as it is a purpose, that will be enough to invoke the protection. If we were going to go further to seek to comprehensively protect journalists or their sources from incidental unintended effects then what you say would be absolutely correct, but that is not what we are seeking to do. It is not what we have been asked to do. What we are seeking to do—what we have been asked to do—is to include, in effect, an anti-abuse provision to prevent the deliberate misuse of this provision to interfere with the confidentiality of the relationship between journalists and their sources. This provision, as I am sure you would acknowledge, does so.