Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

An inquiry into this matter by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security is nowhere near good enough. It is a closed shop—owned and run in secret behind closed doors by the major political parties in this place. The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security is actually part of the reason we have ended up in the mess that we are in, where the AFP is raiding media organisations in this country with a chilling effect on reporting and the core duty of the media to hold power to account. This inquiry has got to be done openly, it's got to be done transparently and it's got to be done in the full view of the Australian people so that they can have confidence that we're getting to the bottom of the significant malaise in this country, where rights are continually being eroded by scaring Australians and trying to make them understand that, in fact, their rights need to be given away and eroded. This inquiry needs to be done openly, and we will not support it being done by the PJCIS.