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

Thanks, Senator Lambie. I am aware of the reports that you are referring to. If those reports are true, that would of course be of great concern, I think, to all Australians. The Australian government is committed to keeping Australians safe, including working with law enforcement and working with industry to achieve that. The information provided by telecommunication carriers to emergency services is essential to keeping people safe from harm and supporting investigations.

Senator Lambie, as you may be aware, there is an ability for telecommunications companies to recover the costs of providing this kind of information. That ability is provided for under the Telecommunications Act. But it's limited in the sense that telecommunications carriers or carriage service providers cannot profit from the data they provide. So they are legally allowed to recover the cost of providing that information but they can't profit from that. I think that is something that all Australians would agree with. This cost recovery model has a long-established framework in telecommunications law in our country. The Albanese government certainly expects telecommunication providers to support our emergency services and our police services in these kinds of investigations. We encourage them to provide information as soon as possible to support their needs.

I think all of us have been very disturbed by this particular incident. It must be horrible for Ms Murphy's family to have to go on, day by day, without her body being found. It is an extremely distressing incident not only for her family but for many others as well, and we would certainly be encouraging telecommunications providers to assist the police investigation in any way they possibly can.