Penny Allman-Payne (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The government also had the choice not to put schedule 5 in this bill and to put it in a separate bill that could have had an urgent inquiry, because that happens in this place all the time. Things come in to the parliament urgently, and, on a Friday morning after a sitting week, there's an urgent hearing, or there's a hearing at 8 am before the day starts, to inquire into something that deserves scrutiny. So the suggestion by the government that there was no time to give adequate scrutiny to schedule 5 is a furphy. It's convenient. Schedule 5 offends the rule of law. We have been told that by numerous legal experts and the Law Council of Australia. Schedule 5 infringes on people's rights. I'm sorry, but I don't think the police telling you that they need this thing is sufficient.