Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

The opposition opposes schedule 8 in the following terms:

(28)  Schedule 8, item 8, page 119 (line 32) to page 120 (line 6), TO BE OPPOSED.

This motion is about insubstantial copying or cherry picking. The main committee report from the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs recommended that the government consider the possibility of amending the proposed subsection 135ZM(B)(5) in schedule 8 of the bill so that insubstantial copying of works and electronic works need not be continuous. The government in this instance did not accept this recommendation. You considered the provision technologically neutral. You backtracked on it from your original position. The position that Labor has put forward is a more sensible position. I will not go to the detail. It is plain that the government has not looked at recommendation 11 in any meaningful way. There is still a problem in this area and the government should be encouraged to accept our motion. It would improve the overall bill. I recognise that this is a position which the government has not picked up. It would be helpful if the government picked up the recommendation. I recognise that I probably do not have the numbers in this chamber, so I will not take up a substantial amount of time arguing for it. Simply put, it would be a much better than the position the government has got to.