Senate debates

Monday, 15 November 2010

Evidence Amendment (Journalists’ Privilege) Bill 2010

Second Reading

1:31 pm

Photo of Nick XenophonNick Xenophon (SA, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

in reply—I thank honourable senators for their contributions to this important debate. Reform in relation to protecting journalists’ sources is an important one. It is time we had this reform. It is time that journalists no longer feared jail for simply doing their job in bringing matters to the public interest that ought to be there for people to make your own judgment on.

I will refer briefly to the contributions. I acknowledge Senator Brandis’s longstanding interest in this matter. He has been an outspoken advocate for reform in relation to this. I note that he indicated—and I was not here then—his advocacy in the Harvey-McManus case when he was a backbencher. That would have taken an act of political courage, given that Messrs Harvey and McManus caused some embarrassment to the then Howard government in relation to the issue of veterans’ entitlements. I imagine it would not have been an easy thing for Senator Brandis to raise that, given the politics surrounding that particular case. Clearly it was wrong that Gerard McManus and Michael Harvey were dragged through the courts and sustained a criminal conviction for simply doing their jobs.

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