Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member. I come back to the point that I made earlier. The content of the conversation—the content of an email or a text message—is not the subject of this legislation; it is purely the record. I just remind the honourable member for Denison that these records are there now. They cannot be accessed by the police out of idle curiosity. It has to be in the context of investigating the commission of a crime and so forth. I am sure the honourable member is well aware of this.

If there were an investigation of a crime that required examination of metadata that might include telephone records between a member of parliament or somebody else, that information is available now and is being accessed now. The rationale the member is advancing in that example would basically mean that the whole system of access to metadata would grind to a halt. We have special protections in this bill for journalists, given their special role.

I do not want to overdo the lavish praise for journalists and journalism but we cannot get away from the fact that the work journalists do is as important as anything the honourable member and I do—or any of our colleagues do. It is absolutely critical in their ability to access information confidentially and to protect their sources. I repeat that it is the journalist's job to protect his or her sources and they should take every care to do so; and their employer should ensure that they take care to do so.

There is a vital public interest in ensuring that we have a free and robust press. We all feel the lash, from time to time, and we all feel we have been mistreated and misunderstood, but we will not have a democracy without a free and fearless and independent press. So it is very important to recognise that journalists sit in a different situation.

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