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

Senator Rice, thank you very much for your question. That is one of the purposes of establishing the task force in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. It is so there is a distinct entity with which state, territory and local governments and universities are able to work through these processes. It is to provide guidance and advice in the context of the arrangements that are undertaken between state and territory and local governments, and universities. I'm not shying away from the fact that this is a new piece of legislation and will require compliance by relevant parties, and they include universities and state, territory and local governments, but it is in Australia's national interests to ensure that we are able to achieve this degree of consistency, and it is absolutely in my interests—in the government's interests and in the department of foreign affairs' interests—to work constructively with relevant entities in the process of doing that. That is overwhelmingly our intention and it is indeed what we have been doing through the process of the 60 stakeholder consultations since the bill was introduced.