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

The government makes no apologies for being very concerned to ensure that our criminal laws are written in a way that gives Australians the maximum protection that they need from terrorist crime and gives our police and our national security agencies all the powers that they need to protect innocent Australians. Because we on this side of the chamber care about the values of liberal democracy, we have ensured that those enhanced powers that we have given to the Australian Federal Police and to ASIO are hedged by very significant safeguards, transparency and accountability mechanisms. This includes, in particular, to a higher level than existed heretofore, accountability to the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Intelligence and Security.