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

It's a decision of government to propose the amendments that are contained in the bill, but that is based on the principle that this committee, like all committees, should represent the composition of the parliament. I understand that this would not be the first time that the PJCIS would contain representation from the crossbench. That was the case under the last Labor government. I'm not aware of any national security failures that occurred as a result of that. It's due to those reasons and that principle that we're proposing to make this change.