James Paterson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Cyber Security) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Lambie, I respect your career of service to our country prior to coming to this parliament and your work in this parliament particularly on defence issues and on veterans affairs issues. You're rightly recognised widely in the community for that, and no-one would seek to take that away from you. The reason why the coalition believes, as the Labor Party has generally believed—with one exception in the past—that the PJCIS should remain a bipartisan committee of the parties that have served in government is: since the end of World War II, there are only two forms of government we have had in this country—either a Liberal-National coalition government or a Labor government. It is only us who have the burden of having to live with the implementation of the recommendations that committees like the PJCIS implement, it is only us who have to take the responsibility at an executive level for keeping this country safe, and it is on the parties of government where responsibility will fall if something ever goes wrong. Because of that burden I believe it is appropriate for the parties that have traditionally served in government to continue to hold this responsibility, which has worked remarkably well with the PJCIS since it was introduced in 2001 and with its predecessor committees. I think to tamper with that now and to change that now is dangerous, particularly in the heightened security environment we are entering into.