Lidia Thorpe (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Amendment Bill 2020. It's funny, this place. Out there in the community, in the real world, we teach our kids that if they see the wrong thing they should speak up, that if someone does the wrong thing, they should say something, and that, if they do say something, they will be protected, because telling the truth and exposing corruption and bad behaviour are better than staying silent. In the real world, where most of us live, we teach our kids honesty and integrity; however, when you come into this place, that is completely reversed. In here, the government threaten people who speak up. They threaten people who see something wrong. They threaten whistleblowers, journalists and activists, because the home affairs minister, Peter Dutton, is scared and feels threatened—the fragility. The 'never ever could be Prime Minister', the Minister for Home Affairs, is running scared. So what does he do? He sends his big spy agency to harass, intimidate and threaten anyone he doesn't like or he doesn't agree with—weak. What a joke.

These ASIO laws could punish journalists breaking politically significant stories, stories like the conduct of the type of person the Attorney-General is and has been; stories exposing the hypocrisy of the member for Aston, Alan Tudge, who talks big on family values but has none where it matters; and big—