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

I am always a bit cautious about dealing with hypothetical cases in a parliamentary debate. However, it is certainly not the intention of the definition of 'harass' or, indeed, 'intimidate' that the government has included to include conduct of the kind that you refer to. So that harassment according to its ordinary speech meaning—which is as the explanatory memorandum explains, and subject to the two clarifying definitional amendments to which I have referred—I would have thought requires knowledge by the victim of the harassment of the fact of the harassment taking place.