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

Since 2014 the government has embarked on the most significant legislative reform in this area in a generation. I want to direct to the attention of honourable senators the remarks of Deputy Commissioner Phelan when he announced the charging of the two men to whom I have referred. He said, 'We have used nearly every counterterrorism power that is available under Commonwealth and New South Wales legislation.' He went on to say, 'We've seen over the last few years, in particular, eight tranches of legislation that have been introduced by the government'—that is, the Commonwealth government—'and let me tell you that some of that legislation that was brought in to us was what we used to make this investigation get to the stage where it did. We went from not much to the stage where we were able to charge people with admissible evidence in relation to a very significant terrorist offence, so that has gone a long way to us being able to do what we did.' (Time expired)