Scott Ludlam (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I might start with a couple of quick general questions that relate to cost since that was the second reading vote that just went down. My first question to the honourable Attorney-General is to ask him to give a sense of how the government sees a couple of issues that I suspect are related. One is the location of storage. We suspect other crossbench senators also have an amendment that relates to where this data will be stored. Is there is a requirement—and I do not believe there is—in the bill that it be stored here in Australia? I would expect on advice from the sector that that would potentially raise costs. I understand that where the material should be stored is something that the government is giving some consideration to as well as how the costs should be apportioned—such as directly funding telecommunications providers as opposed to letting costs wash through and there being potentially increased data charges or potentially not.

I am interested to know, firstly—and the Attorney-General is welcome to take these questions together, if he wishes—how the government proposes to resolve issues of cost as relayed in the letter from the Communications Alliance and obviously representative of concerns of the CEOs of major and minor telecommunications companies. Secondly, how does the Attorney-General see the issue of where the data is to be hosted and how that may affect considerations of cost?