Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

The minister is saying that somehow it will be unsafe if we wait another few months while we have an inquiry into a significant piece of legislation. This government has been in power for 18 months. If this was so important, why has it taken them 18 months to bring this legislation forward? If it's so important, why is all our data already contained and safe, apparently, and no problems?

We know there are already issues with the security of people's data. We know, from the Medibank fiasco that occurred just recently, that people can't always trust governments to keep their data safe. That's why there should be a significant and comprehensive inquiry that gives all Australians the opportunity to have their say.

What the government is trying to do here is to rush this through without proper scrutiny, without Australians being able to understand what the government is doing with their data, with their security and with their privacy. This should go through because it is our job to scrutinise legislation, and there is nothing lost by waiting a few more months to get this right.