Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to deliver a contribution from the opposition on the Criminal Code Amendment (Agricultural Protection) Bill 2019. This bill has obviously attracted a great deal of media attention since the government first flagged it some time ago.

At the outset I want to put down some basic principles that have guided Labor's position on this bill. In one respect this bill deals with some competing tensions about rights within our community. On the one hand, Labor has always had a fine tradition of upholding the right to protest about political, philosophical and ideological matters. I point anyone who is interested in this to look at the legacy of previous Labor governments, state and federal, in ensuring that people do have a legitimate right to protest, particularly over civil rights matters. However, there is another right that is at play in the context of this bill, and that is the right of people involved in the agriculture industry, whether it be farmers, meatworkers or others, to go about their lawful business without illegal interruption by extremist protesters. So let there be no doubt that Labor respects and supports the right to protest but it does not support the extremist protesters who have repeatedly now—to use their words—invaded agricultural properties and other businesses involved in the agriculture sector in an illegal fashion, putting lives in danger.

I can already hear mutterings from Senator McKim, a supporter of extremist protesting. I'm interested to hear his and the Greens' contribution on this debate, to hear whether they have any respect whatsoever for the lives and businesses of people involved in the agriculture industry who have, quite literally, been threatened by some of these extremist protesters. I have no qualms whatsoever about saying that I support the right to protest on political matters. It is something I have done personally over many decades and continue to do. But what I don't do is threaten the lives and businesses of people who are going about their lawful business, and that is what we are seeing from some extremist protester elements. Senator McKim and his colleagues may wish to reflect on that as they are making up their mind about which way they will land on this bill.

As I said, our starting position is that Labor acknowledge that farmers and those in agricultural businesses should not be subjected to intimidating and unlawful actions by extreme activists trespassing on their land and that, if there are gaps in the criminal law that permit such behaviour to go unpunished, it is appropriate for the government to ensure legislation fills those gaps. That is why Labor supported the passage of this bill through the House of Representatives and that is why we are supporting the passage of this bill here today.

However, from the time this bill was rushed into the parliament—and let's be honest, the genesis of this bill was another political stunt from this government—without consultation or the proper time needed for careful drafting, concerns have been raised that this bill, like so much that this government does, is a kind of virtue-signalling which doesn't take account of legitimate concerns about where this bill might go and unintended consequences that might arise, rather than being a serious attempt to protect farmers. Repeated failures in lawmaking by this government have demonstrated that the power to make laws for our nation, which is a power entrusted to the federal government by the Australian people, is a power that should be exercised with great care.

Instead, as the many potentially significant unintended consequences of this sloppily drafted law show, the Morrison government continues to see its power to make laws for our nation as a marketing opportunity simply to build the Liberal Party and National Party brands. This is concerning in the case of criminal laws because of the severe impact that such laws can have on individuals that fall foul of them. But let me say that we will be supporting this bill because Labor are prepared to support laws to better protect farmers and others involved in the agriculture sector from unlawful protests by extremist protesters on their land and on their premises. Again, if anyone has any doubt about the seriousness of the events that have been going on and the need to take action, you need only talk to some of the farm businesses who have been the subject of this illegal form of extremist protesting. We're not talking about genuine civil disobedience—