David Johnston (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Justice and Customs) Share this | Hansard source

The government consider this proposal to be ill-conceived, premature and inadequate. We are working with the states and territories through the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General to establish mechanisms for appropriate access for legitimate purposes to material which has been refused classification. As state and territory laws provide for the offences relating to the use of refused classification material, it is appropriate that they be part of developing suitable mechanisms with appropriate limits and controls. This is what the Attorney-General has been saying from the outset to no avail, and it has been rebuffed by the Labor Party. There are fundamental flaws in this Democrat approach. The proposal contains no limits on the type of refused classification material which may be the subject of an application. It would also designate the Classification Review Board, a merits review body, to override state and territory law. To use the honourable senator’s words, this would be a ‘power grab’. It would enable Commonwealth regulations to set out procedures which would rightly belong with the states and territories. The government clearly, in these circumstances, given what we have been through in seeking to engage the states, could not accept this amendment.