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

I will pass on to the Attorney-General the esteem which you hold him in. He will be very touched by that. So that it is clear: the requirement for journalist information warrants, which is the term, where they are sought by the organisation, which is ASIO, they are sought from the minister, not from a judge. That is the case at the moment when ASIO seeks warrants in other contexts. Where a journalism information warrant—and I am now looking at Subdivision C, which is on page 19—is sought by an enforcement agency—the police, for example—that is sought from what is inelegantly called a part 4-1 issuing authority, which is a judicial officer—a member of the AAT, a magistrate or a judge. What the member for Blaxland was referring to was the issue of warrants to the police.

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