Penny Wright (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I ask whether the Attorney-General is aware of the 20th report of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, another of the parliament's joint committees which are of high standing. The report says:

… the committee's major concern was that there appear to be no significant limits on the type of investigation to which a valid disclosure authorisation for existing data may apply.

That is at paragraph 1.196 of its 20th report, in this parliament. It goes on:

The committee notes that the government has not accepted the committee's recommendation that, to ensure a proportionate limitation on the right to privacy—

under human rights law—

an appropriate threshold should be established to restrict access to retained data to investigations of specified threatened or actual crimes that are serious, or to categories of serious crimes such as major indictable offences.

Were you aware of that, Attorney-General; and what is your response?