Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

As I said in recent weeks when I spoke at a conference on these matters in London, the Australian government has asked what is a very senior parliamentary committee, the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, to conduct an inquiry into how law enforcement and intelligence powers interact with protections for journalists and for press freedom, to ensure that we strike the right balance. The Australian government has also directly invited media organisations to provide direct submissions to government, and has engaged with those organisations prior to this, of course, on those key issues of concern to them, and the government is looking forward to working with them and continuing what is a constructive dialogue over the coming months. We are committed to ensuring that, in our democracy, we strike the important right balance between a free press and keeping Australians safe—two fundamental tenets of our democracy which Australians expect us to observe.