Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

The government is committed to upholding and strengthening the freedom of the press in Australia. The bills contain strong protections for the identity of journalists' sources. The government has moved amendments to the bill in response to the recommendation of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights to broaden the public interest test that would apply where the commission seeks a search warrant in relation to a journalist or their employer, to apply in relation to any such application rather than applications made as part of an investigation into a secrecy offence.

This amendment would require issuing officers to weigh the public interest in issuing the warrant against the public interest in protecting the source's identity and facilitating the exchange of information between journalists and members of the public so as to facilitate reporting of matters in the public interest. The bills also contain strong safeguards to protect the identities of journalists' sources and uphold the public interest associated with the free press. Journalists and their employers will not be required to do anything under the bill that would disclose the identity of their source or enable that identity to be ascertained.

The government has made amendments to the bill to strengthen those protections in response to recommendations made by the joint select committee reviewing the bills. The scope of the protection has been expanded to protect persons assisting a journalist who are members of staff of the same media organisation, as well as other persons assisting a journalist in their professional capacity. This will ensure persons who are assisting a journalist and who may be aware of the identity of confidential informants are protected—for example a camera person, editor or a lawyer providing legal advice in connection with an article.

The government has also broadened the public interest test that would apply where the commission seeks a search warrant in relation to a journalist or their employer, to apply in relation to any such application rather than applications made as part of an investigation into a secrecy offence. The government notes that the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security considered, in its bipartisan 2020 press freedoms report, that warrants under section 3A of the Crimes Act should continue to be issued without notice to the relevant journalist or media organisation.

The government, for those reasons, does not support the proposed amendments.