Nick Xenophon (SA, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

On this issue that has been raised by Senator Ludlam and Senator Milne, I accept what the Attorney has said—that Mr Irvine, a former director-general of ASIO, welcomes this legislation and congratulated the Attorney for its passing. But Mr Irvine did say in the media that he is a cybernationalist when it comes to where you position the cloud. In fact, I asked the Attorney questions about this in question time last week. I appreciate the context that there will be further legislation to deal with these issues, in terms of the implementation of metadata. I ask the Attorney this particular question: does he broadly agree with the concerns of Mr Irvine—someone that he and many others in the committee have enormous respect for—that it is preferable for the cloud, in a sense, to be hovering over Sydney, Melbourne or Adelaide rather than over Shanghai or Bangalore?

As a general principle can the Attorney-General indicate at this stage whether there will be a preference, from a policy point of view, that any storage should be controlled here in Australia, by Australian providers, rather than being offshore?