George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Attorney-General, Senator Wong. I refer to the report in this morning’s Fairfax newspapers that said:

Kevin Rudd toughened his terrorism blueprint to highlight the threat from jihadist and home-grown terror despite resistance from officials within his department and the Attorney-General’s Department who were concerned the language was inflammatory and counter-productive—

and, further, that the Prime Minister insisted that the counterterrorism white paper should contain an ‘announcable’. Minister, why did the Prime Minister try to ‘sex up’ Australia’s counterterrorism white paper? Is this not yet another example of the Rudd government’s addiction to political spin before policy substance?