Zed Seselja (ACT, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Science, Jobs and Innovation) Share this | Hansard source

With respect, Senator, we are now very much going over ground that's already been covered in a lot of detail. I'll cover it one more time, but I don't intend to go over and over and over the same questions that are just framed in a slightly different way.

With the circumstances you've just referred to, it would presumably be some form of sabotage offence. I'm trying to figure out where else this might sit. We did deal with this, but I will go over it again. The sabotage offences can be committed only when a person damages public infrastructure and intends to or is reckless as to whether their conduct will prejudice Australia's national security or advantage the national security of a foreign country. 'Public infrastructure' is a defined term set out in section 82.2 of the bill. It doesn't include areas such as mines. Finally, on the other point, which was also covered before in terms of the definition of 'national security', it has been well-defined in a way that hasn't been the case in the past. I went to some detail in rejecting those assertions. With respect, we are very much going over old ground and I don't intend to give the same answer multiple times.