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

I'm just seeking some further advice on that, Senator Roberts, but I'm certainly not aware of any intention to use these powers in that way or even whether the powers could be used that way. I know that there were some concerns raised by a couple of the parliamentary committees about how these powers might be used and the risk of discrimination that might be posed. I think we were certainly able to persuade those committees that there would be no such ability to discriminate.

You may have seen, Senator Roberts, that one of the things this bill is doing is providing biosecurity officers with increased powers to seek passports from people, but that's really about trying to check where they have been and whether they're repeat offenders when it comes to biosecurity risks rather than checking on people because of their particular racial background, their COVID vaccination background or anything like that. It's more about, as I said, allowing biosecurity officers to trace when people have been to very high-risk locations or if they're repeat offenders with biosecurity, in which case I'm sure you'd agree that they're the people who we really need to focus our biosecurity efforts on.