Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Temporary Chairman. I appreciate that. As I indicated, I did want to speak on Senator Ludlam's amendment, but I missed the call, through no-one's fault except my own, I might say. I missed the call earlier, and I did want to raise some issues with the minister about that. I will do that later as time permits. The question of geoblocking, as Senator Collins very carefully and accurately pointed out, is not really relevant to this particular bill before us. We indeed took a lot of evidence from a lot of people. I was referring to some of them when Senator Ludlam interrupted me last time. I was trying to recall which of those who gave evidence actually referred to geoblocking and made the point that Senator Collins has already made. That came out in some of the submissions. I am looking through this list trying to recall, from the 49 submissions that were made, which of those actually made comments on geoblocking. I do note that, of those who made submissions, there were quite a number who did give evidence. The Hansard will record that some of them referred to the general policy issue that Senator Ludlam has raised in his amendment. I thank Senator Collins and Senator O'Sullivan for attending the committee hearings when these issues were raised. A number of people gave evidence before the committee and some of them, from my reading of the Hansard, did relate to this very important issue.

It is a fraction unfortunate, as I mentioned before, that Senator Ludlam, who got himself appointed to this committee so that he could share his expertise with the rest of the committee, was not able, for whatever reason—I am not sure—to attend the Sydney hearings of the committee where these particular issues could have been canvassed. Had Senator Ludlam attended that, the issues he raises in this amendment before the chair could have been fully canvassed at that time with people who are expert in the area. I know that the Attorney, whose bill this is, is a bit of an expert on those matters as well and he obviously has very good staff who are able to advise him. I know that Senator Fierravanti-Wells is, as some might call her, a modern person right up with these technical terms and is very expert in the bill as well. Clearly, it is unfortunate that Senator Brandis cannot be with us just at the moment to answer these questions. I make the point on the amendment that it is not protected; it is not what this bill was about.

I might leave it there and simply reinforce the point that Senator Collins has so well made. I will return at a later stage as the amendment process proceeds to a place where it will allow me to ask the more general questions I should have asked previously. Minister, I support Senator Collins' view on this. No doubt it is for the government to respond more formally, but it is not an issue for debate on this particular bill.