Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

The question was whether, in the absence of the Attorney-General exercising that discretion—as you say, and as I've said a couple of times, there is a limitation on ASIO's ability to communicate that information, and that limitation is the general provision that the information can be communicated for proper purposes. In your contribution to the debate, Senator Shoebridge, I feel you were characterising it as that ASIO could communicate information willy-nilly without restraint. That's not correct. The act itself requires that communication to occur for 'proper purposes', or words to that effect. In addition, as I've already said, there are a range of oversight mechanisms that exist to ensure that that power is not misused.