Nick Xenophon (SA, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I have upset the Attorney! I will take an acknowledgement from the Attorney. It is better than nothing.

Question negatived.

by leave—I move amendments (3) and (7) on sheet 7672 together:

(3) Schedule 1, item 6L, page 35 (after line 28), at the end of section 180K, add:

Note: If further information is required, a Public Interest Advocate must be notified, see section 180X.

(7) Schedule 1, item 6L, page 40 (after line 23), at the end of section 180R, add:

Note: If further information is required, a Public Interest Advocate must be notified, see section 180X.

Amendment (3) inserts a new note at the end of proposed section 180K to specify that a Public Interest Advocate must be notified if further information is required under that section. This is in accordance with proposed section 180X and consequential to my proposed amendments to the section. In essence, proposed section 180K says

(1) The Minister may require the Director-General of Security to give 20 to the Minister, within the period specified in the requirement, 21 further information in connection with a request under this 22 Subdivision. 23

(2) If the Director-General breaches the requirement, the Minister 24 may: 25

  (a) refuse to consider the request; or 26

  (b) refuse to take any action, or any further action, in relation to 27 the request.

It seems to me that the government's bill is unclear as to whether the further information that is required by the minister is information that will necessarily be given to the Public Interest Advocate. I am not sure whether it was an oversight or a deliberate policy position, or whether the Attorney would acknowledge or even concede that there ought to be a revisiting of this at some time down the track. The Public Interest Advocate does not have the same access to journalists as exists in, say, the US protocols, which we will talk about shortly. The argument is that if further information is requested then the Public Interest Advocate ought to be aware of that in the context of arguing the public interest case in the issue of a journalist information warrant.