Philip Ruddock (Berowra, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

I understand you may hold it high, but I suspect that he is going to be disappointed. But if he were to be so rewarded, he would find himself pressed by somebody from this side of the House on those same issues and be in the unfortunate position of not being able to elucidate very fully. There are good reasons for that. As to issues that go to security agencies and the way in which they are resourced to carry out particular functions and the skill sets that they have, to discuss those would, I think, prejudice security. I am perfectly happy for the honourable member to be briefed on those matters separately, but I do not think it is appropriate to canvass them in a broad-ranging debate, save to say that the importance of having linguistic skills is not something that escapes the attention of others. That is all I would want to say.

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