Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Special Minister of State) Share this | Hansard source

I am not entirely sure why I am speaking to the government’s amendment! But from any reasonable reading of the two amendments, clearly the opposition’s amendment in relation to this matter strengthens the integrity of everything that underpins this bill. We have gone further than the government because we did not think the government were providing the appropriate level of protection for voluntary information. If you read our amendment you will see that it strengthens that. And we are a bit surprised that the government have not taken the opportunity to support this amendment which, in a perverse way, will lead to a far greater inflow of the information that they, the expert panel and others require to make a decision. Indeed, if you do not strengthen this particular aspect of it, there is a very real risk that the information will not be provided in a timely sense, or without some considerable stick, because of the concerns of the carriers—now described as ‘eligible carriers’. That is the reason why we believe our amendment strengthens this bill and will speed the process up. We think the government’s amendment, perversely, will actually hinder the process.