David Fawcett (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Attorney-General, Senator Brandis. Can the Attorney-General acquaint the Senate with recent testimony provide by General James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence and head of the United States Intelligence Community, to the American Senate's Committee on Armed Services on the effects of Edward Snowden's disclosures on the security of Western nations and the safety of their citizens?

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Fawcett for his question and acknowledge Senator Fawcett's very deep knowledge of and interest in national security matters. Senator Fawcett may be interested to know that overnight the Director of National Intelligence, General Clapper, did give evidence to the American Senate's Committee on Armed Services about threats to national security, identifying two in particular. The second was the disclosures of the traitor Edward Snowden, which he described as having caused 'profound damage'. As a consequence, General Clapper said, 'the nation is less safe and its people less secure.' He went on to say about Snowden's disclosures:

As a result, we’ve lost critical foreign intelligence collection sources, including some shared with us by valued partners.

That, of course, includes Australia.

Terrorists … are going to school on U.S. intelligence sources, methods and tradecraft, and the insights they are gaining are making our job much, much harder. And this includes putting the lives … at risk

I agree with what General Clapper had to say. I think it is purely a coincidence, but a remarkable coincidence, that I was taken to task by Senator Ludlam, his party's spokesman on these matters, for using the very same phrase—that the Snowden treachery put lives at risk—in answer to a question from Senator Ludlam yesterday. Nobody should make light of the gravity, seriousness and threat to the Western world in particular, to the democratic world, including Australia, of the treachery of Edward Snowden.

David Fawcett (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Is the Attorney-General aware of any contrary views to those expressed by the Director of National Intelligence?

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Unfortunately I am aware of contrary views, and I hasten to add that I do not understand any view to the contrary being held by the official opposition in this place, because they are responsible enough to deal with these matters in a bipartisan fashion. The same cannot be said of course of the Greens and, in particular, Senator Ludlam, who yesterday published an article describing the traitor Snowden as 'a whistleblower whom I hold in extremely high regard'.

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Shame!

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That is, as Senator Abetz says, a shameful matter. I might direct Senator Ludlam to an article published by the respected journalist Edward Lucas yesterday in the American Spectator in which he pointed out that Snowden answers none of the descriptions of a whistleblower: he has not exposed grave criminal wrongdoing; he has not minimised danger to public safety; and he has published way beyond what he claims to be necessary— (Time expired)

David Fawcett (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. What advice would the Attorney-General give Australians on the importance of a well-governed and appropriately supervised national security agency?

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The advice I would give Australians is that they can be confident in the integrity and skill of the men and women who serve Australia as officers of the national security agencies. The advice I would give Australians is that they should not be deluded by the paranoid fantasists and conspiracy theorists of the Australian Greens. And the advice I would give the Australian people is that our national security agencies—staffed, as I said, by personnel of integrity and skill—are supervised by this parliament through an exhaustive network of parliamentary accountability and independent accountability, especially through the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security. They do important work that keeps Australians safe. They ought to be supported in their endeavours by all members of this chamber. Sadly, in the case of one particular political party, the fantasists and conspiracy theorists of the Australian Greens, they are not. (Time expired)

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.