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

As chairman of the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee that inquired into the Criminal Code Amendment (Protecting Minors Online) Bill—not just into this iteration, but also into previous iterations of the bill—can I say the committee fully supports the legislation, as is demonstrated in the unanimous committee report to the parliament on the legislation.

I just want to take this opportunity to thank all of the submitters, including Sonya Ryan, who gave very compelling evidence. I also thank other submitters. I want to particularly thank the Law Council of Australia, who made a very serious and considered submission to the committee, some of which the committee was inclined to accept; however, in the end we thought that the bill as it stood had covered most of the issues that had been raised. I should also mention that this is an issue that Senator Xenophon has been working on, including in the last parliament, and, with a lot of negotiation and consultation with the Attorney-General, has reached agreement on this bill, which I think satisfies the concerns that all of us have. It is an appropriate bill for adoption by the parliament. I commend it.