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

I do not have those provisions in front of me, but I have told you on many occasions now—by reference to the identified agencies and the proposed scope of the act—who can access metadata and for what purposes it can be accessed.

In relation to what you have to say about the public interest monitor, can I just make this point: I do not think that the public interest monitor should necessarily be a contradictor. As Mr Bassi reminds me, there is an intrinsic tension between saying that the public interest monitor should be a contradictor and that the public interest monitor should be independent. If there is a statutory requirement that the public interest monitor has to be a contradictor, then what it means is that the public interest monitor cannot operate independently; he cannot bring an independent mind to bear on his own appraisal of whether the criteria in proposed subsection 180L(2)(b) are satisfied or not. If you say he has a statutory obligation to be a contradictor, you are saying he cannot be an independent officer. I think that that is a very bad principle.