Anika Wells (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Sport) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the Leader of the Opposition for her question. As I noted when the amendments were moved earlier today, we were keen to engage in good faith on potential amendments. But, unfortunately, that was not reciprocated by the opposition, who then pulled a parliamentary stunt. However, since then, we've had a bit of time to look over the proposed amendments by the member for Lindsay and I must say, unfortunately for all of us, they are quite poor.

In relation to the proposed amendment to the Security of Critical Infrastructure Act 2018, at best, the amendment is completely redundant. The current definition of 'critical telecommunications asset' already captures the infrastructure the amendment is targeted towards. At worst, the amendment would extend the definition of 'critical telecommunications asset' far beyond its intent. The proposed insertion of 'a telecommunications network that is used to supply an emergency call service' is untethered from the concept of carriers and carriage services and does not define what an emergency call service is and so it would potentially capture any system—

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