Rex Patrick (SA, Centre Alliance) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to again encourage the chamber to consider their vote on this particular matter. We are introducing a power to police that will possibly affect a number of people. It's a power that is granted to the police to allow them to demand identification, to remove people from an airport, to stop people getting onto flights. That is something that will affect a majority of Australians. Most Australians travel. We heard yesterday from the government that something like 44 million people visit our airports every year. Whilst Centre Alliance doesn't object to these powers—in terms of advice from the AFP and our security services saying that it's necessary—it potentially creates an infringement on citizens' rights; therefore, we should treat it very carefully and respectfully.

Yesterday, Centre Alliance sought to move an amendment whereby, after three years of the operation of these laws, the PJCIS would look at their operation and perhaps at other areas of airport security that may be important. At that point in time they might find that this law is, in fact, not very useful at all or that it is one of the more useful laws that has been passed in respect of aviation security. At that point in time, the parliament could then reconsider it. If, indeed, at that point in time, the parliament was of the view that these were really important, they could simply take a proposition to the House of Representatives and back into the Senate and seek to continue the operation of the laws.

If, indeed, the laws are found to be not very useful, they could simply lapse. In situations where we're given a choice about whether or not we allow a law to continue that is in some sense infringing on people's rights, we should take the default position of allowing those laws to lapse unless there is good reason for them to continue. It's for that reason that I ask the chamber to vote in support of the sunset. That's the proper thing that should be done with the new law that potentially infringes upon citizens' fundamental rights.