Andrew Wallace
Fisher · Liberal National Party · Australia
“Based on that meeting, I worked pretty closely with the former shadow minister for communications David Coleman, and I was the chair of the Social Policy and Legal Affairs Committee when, with the member for Newcastle, we held an inquiry into protecting the age of innocence.”
“On 3 January 2018, Dolly Everett passed away at the age of 14. She was a young woman, a young lady, who had been bullied mercilessly. Sadly, she took her own life as a result of the bullying she encountered on social media. That happened not long into my parliamentary term in this place.”
“Later, in June 2024, the then opposition leader Peter Dutton pledged that a coalition government would implement a ban on social media for under-16s within 100 days of taking office. The Labor government did not introduce a bill to protect under-16s from social media until 12 months after we introduced our private member's bill.”
“It was the coalition that consistently led the charge on the protection of children. We actually set up the eSafety Commissioner—and what we now know, from the eSafety Commissioner herself, is that 70 per cent of children are still on social media as a result of this government's flawed legislation.”
“The continuity, the trust and the prevention that a good family GP, like my doctor in Maroochydore, provides cannot be replicated by a clipboard and a six-minute timer. That is where the human cost begins to accumulate. Bulk-billing has collapsed under this government, no matter what those opposite say or how they try and spin it.”
“For decades, Commonwealth governments, including coalition governments, have used health incentive payments to support quality care, to encourage digital health adoption, to sustain general practice in aged-care settings and to keep doctors working in rural and remote communities, where the economics of medicine are hard and the distances…”
The complete record
Every one of 667 lines we hold for Andrew Wallace, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 3 of 14.
“It is inconceivable that you could bring these cohorts from Syria, from a refugee camp, without any assistance from this federal government, yet that is what they continue to portray to the Australian people. It is a fiction. It is a fib. It is a fabrication—one of the many that this government continues to make and expects Australians to believe. How much taxpayer funding has been allocated already and how much will be allocated in the future to support ISIS brides and their children? This is a reasonable question to ask. These are people who decided to leave Australia and fight with a group of terrorists that were willing to fight and kill Australians. They made that decision.”
“Were similar arrangements offered to the Melbourne arrivals or to any previous returned ISIS bride cohorts? Where did the 26 May arrivals go after landing in Sydney and Melbourne? Why could the Home Affairs secretary not answer that question at estimates? What monitoring, reporting or control arrangements are now in place for each member of the latest cohort? Were passport approvals, identity checks, consular engagement or liaison with foreign authorities provided in relation to the return of the ISIS brides in 2022, 2025 and 2026—yes or no? No-one believes this government—we could put a full stop there—when they say that they did not provide any assistance to the return of these ISIS brides.”
“One of the greatest and most important obligations of any federal government—in fact, any government—is to ensure the protection of its citizens, and the Department of Home Affairs is principal, as is the Minister for Home Affairs, to that responsibility. So this evening I want to talk primarily about the return of the so-called ISIS brides and I want to ask the minister a series of questions. Who arranged the health checks for the Sydney arrivals on 26 May, and was the purpose to keep the arrivals away from waiting media? Why did those arrivals receive what could essentially be described as a rockstar arrival process? Why was the national counterterrorism coordinator unaware of those arrangements if they related to a cohort of national security concern?”
“No-one has been able to explain to me why this magic age of over 65 is a trigger. Why is it that when you need private health insurance the most, as you get older and more frail, that this government is ripping away the access to private health insurance? Prime Minister, why are you doing it? (Time expired)”
“When they're on fixed incomes, it's really hard to find an extra $1,600 a year for your private health insurance. It's really hard— An honourable member: You can shop around. I'll take the interjection from those opposite saying 'shop around'. We have a situation where small private hospitals, particularly in rural and regional Australia, are saying, 'If these changes are brought in'—they're already doing it tough, some of these smaller private hospitals—'and we see an exodus of people leaving private health insurance once they're over 65, it will make our business models financially unviable.' That means job losses; it means a lack of access to health care rather than better access to health care like those members opposite so often tell us that they're so good at. I don't understand it.”
“The whole budget is a breach of trust from this government, but if we're now talking about health related matters, it is specifically a breach of trust about how people chose to care for and invested in caring for their own private health needs. And it was an investment, because we—'we' being the older generation, and I suppose I'm in those ranks now—made that decision decades ago and paid premiums for decades based on the assumption that future governments would abide by that decision. Now this Albanese Labor government has ripped that away from older people. You might say, and I've heard members opposite say, 'Oh, it's only a couple of hundred dollars.' No, that's not right. If you are a couple and you happen to be on the gold standard of private health insurance, it's about $1,630 extra that these people have to find.”
“You'll have the ability to choose your doctor, go to a private hospital and, effectively, be treated much more quickly than you would through the public system.' And we relied on that representation—on successive representations from successive governments. Relying on those representations was not an unreasonable expectation of the Australian people. Yet deep within the bowels of these budget documents lies the ripping away of these concessions for the over-65s. I put out a petition a couple of weeks ago. More than 6,000 people have signed this petition. I was at the Maleny show on the weekend. People were coming up to me and complaining bitterly about the budget in general, but older people were talking to me about the ripping away of these concessions, because it's just blatantly unfair. It is a breach of trust from this government.”
“Those members opposite talk about being the doyens of health care and about providing health services to Australians. There's one thing in the budget that I think I really need to point out to them. I'm very pleased that the Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care is here, but I am very disappointed that the her boss, the Minister for Health and Ageing, is not, because one of the challenges that arose out of this budget was a ripping away of the private health insurance concessions for the over-65s. Now, Mr Deputy Speaker Wilkie, you're probably of a pretty similar vintage to me. You were told by successive governments: 'Before you turn 30, get private health insurance. You'll get it at a concessional rate, provided you do it before you're 30. Pay your premiums. You'll have access to a cheaper form of private health insurance.”
“It's a fair enough position for the everyday Australian to rely upon a representation made by the government of the day that they will not change something. When the Prime Minister stands up, particularly when he says things like, 'My word is my bond. I'm not going to make these changes'—”
“But then they continued. The Prime Minister and the Treasurer continued. Even before the 2022 election, they went to the election saying there'll be no changes—no changes to CGT, no changes to negative gearing, no changes to trusts and no changes to superannuation. They said that again in the lead-up to the 2025 election, repeatedly. The Prime Minister castigated a journalist in a presser at one stage saying: 'How many times have I got to say this—50 times? There'll be no changes.' And yet here we are, less than 12 months after the 2025 election, when they've won a thumping majority—an absolute thumping majority—by giving those representations. The member for Fadden is a colleague of mine as a lawyer. We would call those misrepresentations—actionable misrepresentations.”
“Well, this has nothing to do with intergenerational fairness. This is a cash grab. The reality is that this government has run out of their money and now they are coming after everyday Australians for more of their money. This is the biggest attempt to redistribute wealth in this country that certainly I have seen in my very short lifetime. Australians are angry, and they should be angry, because they weren't expecting this. They were told repeatedly by this prime minister and his frontbench that there were going to be no changes to housing tax, no changes to superannuation and no changes to trusts. They breached that when they tried to bring in their tax on unrealised capital gains on superannuation funds, and eventually the Treasurer backed down, because I think he was the only person in the world who thought it was a good idea.”
“But the reality is that we know how this is going to end. It's going to end in tears. And, if rents go up, what is the one challenge that so many young people talk to us about when it comes to them buying a house? It's saving a deposit. It's a lot harder to save for your deposit if you're shelling out more money in rent. I've seen some suggestions from different economists that say that these changes will increase rents in Sydney by $160 a week and in Melbourne by $130 a week. They're talking about potentially up to 20 per cent increases in residential rents. When young people are finding it increasingly difficult to save for a deposit, I don't know how these changes are going to make it any easier for them to get into a house. This government has consistently said since the budget that this is all about 'intergenerational fairness'.”
“When we look at some of the changes that this bill seeks to introduce—I'll touch on the first one: negative gearing. We've read this book before, and we know how it ends. In the 1980s, Paul Keating got rid of negative gearing. What happened to rental prices in Melbourne and Sydney? They absolutely skyrocketed. That so-called reform did not last two years before he had to capitulate on that. No-one, not one person on the other side—not even the Cabinet Secretary, with all of his brilliance as an economist—has been able to demonstrate to anyone in this country why what we will get today will be any different to what happened in the 1980s. They say that to keep doing what you've always been doing and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity. I think Einstein said that.”
“Before coming into this place, I made my living out of being a builder and a construction lawyer, so essentially I was involved in the building industry for 35-odd years before I came in here. I like to think I know a little bit about the building industry and how it operates. This bill, this budget, is going to be an absolute disaster for the Australian economy. It's going to be an absolute disaster for mums and dads. Over the weekend, I went home, and I had the Maleny Agricultural Show on Friday and Saturday. It was a beautiful couple of days, and I had so many people coming up to me and talking to me about how this budget was going to impact upon them personally. There was not one person spoke to me favourably about this budget, and there's a good reason for that.”
“I want to tell a little story about Dale and Tanya, who are local businesspeople in my electorate. They come from Wurtulla. They received in the last few years an export award for their business. I'm not going to name them because we all know what happens. Some trolls on the other side will—”
“The people of Fisher deserve a government that honours what they have built and protects what they have lost, not one that sends them yet another tax bill for it. This government, when it runs out of money, comes after yours.”
“The 30 per cent minimum tax does not distinguish between sophisticated tax planning and a family that uses a trust for the same reason they have a lock on their front door. But there is a second group being caught in this net, and their situation is even more troubling. A wills and estates lawyer from my electorate has written to me about testamentary discretionary trusts. These trusts only come into existence because someone has died. They exist to protect inheritances for children, widows, disabled beneficiaries and vulnerable adults. There are fewer than 11,000 of them in Australia. This is a tax on grief, and the idea that traumatised families must now engage lawyers and accountants to restructure an estate while still processing their loss is nothing short of cruel. The coalition will oppose these measures.”
“It's not because they are wealthy and not because they're rorting the system. They've done it because their accountant sat across from them when they were starting out and said, 'Here's your company structure and here's the trust that will protect your family home if things go wrong.' The ATO's own data shows that 60 per cent of all trust distributions flow to beneficiaries earning less than $120,000 a year. These are not hedge fund managers. They are mums and dads trying to keep their dreams alive and trying to protect their assets. COSBOA has warned that the restructuring costs will fall hardest on the smallest operators, the very people who are least equipped to absorb them. The irony is that the genuinely wealthy, with their complex structures and advisers, will find their way through.”
“Right across the Fisher electorate there are tradies, cafe owners and small-business operators who are watching this government with deep suspicion. Small businesses make a vital and multilayered contribution to the Australian economy. As drivers of innovation, wealth creation and employment for millions of Australians, these businesses are built on personal risk, years of sacrifice and a genuine stake in the places and people they serve. Now Labor is telling thousands of them that the structure they built their livelihood around is 'a vehicle for avoiding tax'. The Prime Minister stood before the Victorian Labor conference last weekend and asked contemptuously whether Australians sit around the kitchen table thinking about setting up a trust. Well, the answer, of course, is yes. Many of them do.”
“It's a breach of faith of successive governments of all colours. I plead with those members opposite and the Prime Minister to have a change of heart, to pull back and to restore it to the way it was.”
“On 14 May, I launched my petition about this government ripping away private health insurance rebates for the over-65s. Since that time, we've had 5,366 Australians sign this petition. These are Australians who were told for decades: 'Invest in your private health insurance, and, when you need it most, it'll be there for you. And you'll get this concessional rate.' I just cannot understand why those members opposite would want to rip away that concessional rate once someone turns the magic age of 65. What is it about turning 65, when people need it the most and have been paying private health insurance for decades, that makes this government think it's okay to pull away that rebate? At gold level, the costs for a couple will increase by $1,600 a year. How is that fair to mum and dad or grandparents? It is a breach of trust.”
“If anybody can tell me how that is a system that is working well, I'm all ears. I'm loath to give a political speech on this issue because this is an issue that really transcends politics. I've been listening to some of the contributions made by those opposite, and, if you listen to them, all of the problems with the NDIS started in 2013, and all of the problems were on the path to being resolved in 2022.”
“We have some fundamental, systemic problems with the system that provide funding to people who don't need a lot of support. I was listening to the member for Herbert talking about a friend of his who has to demonstrate that he hasn't grown a leg back every 12 months. I mean, come on. This is not rocket science. How much does that cost the system? When the NDIS was first dreamt up, when it was first envisaged, we as a nation and we as a parliament thought, at maturity, there would be 400,000 people on the scheme. There are now 760,000 people on the scheme. We spend as much money today on the NDIS as we do on the defence of this nation—$50 billion a year. That's on 760,000 people. We spend more money on the NDIS than we do on 27 million people for Medicare and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme combined.”
“Having been in the parliament for 10 years, I can tell you that, certainly, since this government has been in power, the NDIS is the No. 1 issue of complaints that I receive from constituents. I receive them from mums and dads, I receive them from participants themselves, I receive them from the service providers, and I receive them from people who are alerting me to fraud. There are lots of problems with the NDIS, and it seems to me, not just having been the federal member but also having been a dad and someone who has worked in this sector as a volunteer, that a lot of the money that is paid out under the NDIS goes to people who are less deserving and not a lot of money goes to the people who really need it most. That is a cause of great concern to me.”
“Sarah's physical disabilities were obviously picked up way before she was born, but they didn't actually pick up that Sarah had autism until she was 16, because—as you know as a famous paediatrician, Mr Deputy Speaker—girls are able to mask their autism so much better than boys. They do a lot a lot of things that are better than boys, but one of them is being able to mask those things. We do to be able to get in and pick up autism more quickly, particularly with young girls. Whilst, in my own case—in Sarah's case—we were able to get all of the physical supports around Sarah with her physical disabilities, we weren't really able to throw much support around her from an autism perspective until she was about 16. That creates problems in itself.”
“Like the member for Herbert, I have a child who is on the NDIS—my youngest daughter, Sarah, who's now 23. We were told that she wouldn't survive my wife's pregnancy and, if she survived the pregnancy, she wouldn't survive the birth. Twenty-three years later, she's still with us. She just picked up her assistance dog yesterday, so she's a happy camper. But for the NDIS, I know Sarah's life would be very, very different. When Sarah was growing up, when she was a young kid, I was invited to go onto the board and become the President of the Sunshine Coast Children's Therapy Centre, which she used to attend as a young child. The member for Herbert, in his speech, picked up on the importance of early access and early intervention, and he's absolutely right. The earlier we can get on and help people, the better.”
“I rise to speak on the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026, a very important bill for the future of our country and a very important bill amending a landmark piece of legislation that, yes, came out of the Gillard government. But I think it's fair to say that it has lost its way over the last 13 years. I want to acknowledge the speech that I heard just then from the member for Mallee and the speech that was given by the member for Herbert on his very personal position on this and his personal reflections. It's one thing to get up and read from your party's talking points. It's another thing to actually have a firsthand experience of what the NDIS means to one's own family.”
“That is one part of the importance of trusts, and now this government is going to change the way that those trusts are dealt with. One thing that seems to have escaped the net here is the pre-CGT assets. Prior to 19 September 1985, any assets you owned were pre CGT. Now, as a result of this budget, from 1 July 2027 those assets, even if they were purchased pre 19 September 1985, are going to be taxed at a marginal rate. This is a breach of trust. It's a breach of faith, and this government will pay— (Time expired)”
“Those members opposite talk about consultation and how this is all very usual and normal for a government to bring out a budget and then consult afterwards. Why didn't they consult before? Why didn't this government go out and speak to stakeholders about these changes before the budget was announced? I'll tell you why. It's because those members opposite lack courage. They lack the courage of Bill Shorten, because they knew that, if they took these changes to the Australian people, the Australian people would say, 'Thanks, but no thanks.' So they didn't. As the father of a child who lives with disabilities, I can tell you one of my fears, and one of the fears of just about every parent who has a child who lives with disabilities, is: What's going to happen to my adult child—hopefully—after I go? How are they going to be looked after?”
“But with this thumping majority that Australians have given this government, with 94 seats, this government wasn't going to waste it. To those members opposite who are sitting on wafer-thin margins—a little Monty Python joke there—you should be very worried about your seats because you know that Australians in your electorates are coming after you because they are very, very angry. They are angry because this government is driving up the cost of everything—rents, mortgages. We've seen 15 interest rate rises under this government. The average Australian mortgage holder is now paying $29,000 a year more on their mortgage than they were under the coalition, and that's after tax. Just think about that—$29,000 more.”
“At least Bill Shorten, as the Leader of the Opposition at the 2019 election, had the courage to take these changes to the people. He was beaten because the Australian public said: 'Thanks, but no thanks. We're not interested.' But the Labor Party realised that, if they took these policy changes to the election, then the same thing would happen to them, so they didn't do it. These are tax changes by stealth. This is surreptitiousness. There's no other way to describe it. The Prime Minister and the Treasurer had been asked time and time again whether there were going to be any changes to the tax of capital gains, negative gearing or trusts, and they said, 'No, that's not part of our policy.' We know that it was part of the Labor Party's policy. It has been part of their policy, since the 1980s, to make these changes.”
“(): I'll be on my best behaviour—I promise, Madam Deputy Speaker! Over the last four years of this government, we have seen the sharpest decline of living standards across the OECD and we've seen the highest rate of government expenditure in 40 years, outside the pandemic. I don't need to stand here and tell this to members on both sides of the House, because we're all hearing it. When we get out into our electorates, we're all hearing how much our constituents are doing it tough. But, since the budget was released a couple of weeks ago, small businesses have been coming to me and telling me how fearful they are about the changes that are being made by this government. This government has effectively brought in these changes to increase tax when they had no mandate to do so.”
“Finally, I want to send a shout-out to Ashton Wood of DV Safe Phone from my electorate, who has donated thousands of phones to victims of domestic violence, thousands of phones that get distributed around the country at no cost to people. He does a great job and he should be commended.”
“It's permanent vigilance—reading a room, reading a mood and calculating the safest response to an unpredictable threat. Children who grow up witnessing this are more likely to experience mental health difficulties. They struggle at school and enter violent relationships themselves. The cycle does not break itself. The deeper cost is harder to measure. It's the child carrying a nervous system shaped by chaos into a classroom, into friendships and into their own relationships one day. The bruises may fade and the wounds may heal, but the research tells us that women who have lived inside violence carry it in their bodies and their minds for years, sometimes decades, after they leave. Rebuilding a shattered family is years of painstaking, expensive work, and we ask chronically underfunded services to carry that weight.”
“For the community facing the most severe exposure—First Nations women in remote Australia—the Prime Minister stood in Alice Springs and announced $842.6 million, with women's safety explicitly cited. Documents produced in the Senate reveal that not one dollar of that $842.6 million has been paid. When pressed, the government said funding would be done retrospectively. Tell that to the women and children who've been waiting for help. This is the pattern: announcement, architecture, silence. In the meantime, another family is shattered. DV is not simply physical or psychological harm; it is the slow erosion of one's identity. It's a woman or a man who stops trusting their own judgement because they have been told, day after day, that they are wrong, that they're worthless and that they're unwanted.”
“The ABS released data in March this year showing that the number of family and domestic violence offenders rose eight per cent in 2024-25 to approximately 97,800—the largest-single increase since national data collection began. More than three-quarters of this number are male. This government's own oversight body, the Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commission, found a 35 per cent increase in women killed by intimate partners in 2023-24—35 per cent in a single year under this national plan and under this government's watch. The Australian Institute of Criminology's most recent homicide data records 46 intimate partner homicide victims, most of them women. In 2025, 28 women were killed by a current or former partner. This government declared gender based violence a 'national emergency'. Those were their words.”
“This is a topic which is near and dear to my heart. I thank the member for Bonner for moving this motion. The zero-tolerance language around this motion is correct. The sentiment is right, but sentiment without accountability is not policy; it's just another press release. I rise having chaired the bipartisan inquiry into family, domestic and sexual violence, which reported to this parliament in March 2021. Eighty-eight recommendations were made. They were bipartisan and they were unanimous on the core findings. We said as a nation we can do better. We said we must do better. Five years later, this government asks us to commend them. Let me put some numbers on the table.”
“I made it clear that the coalition will continue fighting to reverse Labor's new taxes, restore support for seniors, ease the cost-of-living pressures and deliver responsible economic management. We also discussed practical coalition policies around housing supply, reducing inflation and backing the small businesses and workers carrying the burden of Labor's economic failures. Most importantly, it was an opportunity to listen directly to the people of Fisher and bring those conversations back to Canberra. Right now, too many Australians feel Labor promised one thing before the election and delivered something entirely different. The people of Fisher and Australia deserve better.”
“Last Thursday, more than 100 locals joined me at Meridan Community Church for my 2026 federal budget and cost-of-living forum. The message from the community was loud and clear. People are hurting and they are sick of Labor's lies and broken promises—speaking real about pressures facing Sunshine Coast families and small businesses, rising grocery prices, power bills, health care, housing affordability and growing pressure on retirees living on fixed incomes. One of the biggest concerns raised was Labor's attack on seniors through cuts to the private health insurance rebate, which could leave retirees thousands of dollars worse off. Locals also raised concerns about housing, migration, growing debt and reckless spending.”
“While I support stronger cooperation between Australia and Europe, partnerships alone are no substitute for a comprehensive national security strategy. We must get our own house in order first by strengthening sovereign capability, rebuilding industrial resilience, securing our supply chains and ensuring Australia is appropriately prepared for the challenges ahead. (Time expired)”
“National security and economic security are now inseparable. More than 103,000 Australians have paid the ultimate sacrifice with the Australian flag on their left shoulder. We honour that sacrifice not simply with words but by ensuring Australia is prepared for the strategic challenges of the future. That requires seriousness, urgency, long-term thinking and a genuine whole-of-nation approach to national security. I, along with the coalition, support stronger cooperation between Australia and our democratic partners. We support building resilience against cyber threats, terrorism and foreign interference, and we support creating opportunities for Australian defence businesses and innovators to connect into the supply chain of like-minded democratic nations. But these partnerships must be backed by real capability and real investment.”
“As I often say, Australians expect outcomes on defence and intelligence, not just announcements, because announcements are easy, but delivery is hard, and capability delayed is capability denied. The real test of agreements like this is whether they deliver meaningful capability, stronger industrial resilience and improved strategic preparedness. We are already seeing how modern warfare is changing. Lessons from Ukraine and the Middle East demonstrate the growing importance of drones, autonomous systems, integrated strike capability and cyber-resilience. Australia must not fall behind again. That means backing sovereign capability, backing local defence industry, backing Australian manufacturing and ensuring our nation has resilient supply chains and industrial capacity in times of crises.”
“Importantly, this partnership also creates opportunities for Australian businesses operating at the cutting edge of defence, technology and innovation, and that matters greatly for regions like mine on the Sunshine Coast. Many people would be surprised to learn that the Sunshine Coast is home to a growing and highly capable defence, aerospace and advanced manufacturing sector. We have innovative businesses contributing to sovereign capability, aviation technology, cyber-resilience and advanced manufacturing right here in our Sunshine Coast region. Australian businesses are innovative, they are agile, and they're ready to contribute more to Australia's national resilience and defence capability. But partnerships and announcements alone are not enough. Capability matters. Delivery matters. Preparedness matters.”
“As someone who has spent significant time working in the defence, national security and intelligence space through the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security and the defence subcommittee, now the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Defence, I understand just how rapidly these threats are evolving—and Australia cannot afford complacency. The coalition has always understood the importance of strong alliances and strategic partnerships. From ANZUS to the Five Eyes partnership to AUKUS, coalition governments have consistently led on Australia's security, depending not only on capability but also on trusted relationships with like-minded nations.”
“This agreement reflects a growing understanding that the security of Europe and the security of the Indo-Pacific are deeply interconnected. We've seen through the war in Ukraine, tensions in the Indo-Pacific, instability in the Middle East and the escalating cyberthreats that events on the other side of the world can directly impact Australians here. That impact can be felt through energy prices, supply chain disruptions, cyberattacks, trade instability or threats to critical infrastructure.”
“At a time when the world is becoming more unstable, more contested and more dangerous, strong partnerships between democratic nations matter. Australia and Europe may sit on opposite sides of the globe, but increasingly we face the same threats of the growing instability we're witnessing across the globe, in the Indo-Pacific, in Europe and in the Middle East. The old assumption that distance alone protects Australia no longer holds true. National security today extends far beyond traditional borders and battlefronts. Modern warfare is fought across cyber networks, communication systems, critical infrastructure, supply chains, satellites and digital platforms. That's why cooperation with trusted democratic partners is so important.”
“Effectively, it acts as a transitional measure designed to prevent legal gaps or unintended consequences during this transitionary phase. Transitional arrangements are sometimes necessary in complex legislative reform, but Australians are entitled to ask why temporary extensions continue to be required instead of finalising a permanent framework more quickly. Good governance requires certainty, clarity and confidence in the law. Governments should always aim to finalise permanent frameworks wherever possible as reasonably quickly as possible. These bills raise important questions about secrecy, transparency, accountability and national security in modern Australia. They are not simple questions and there are no perfect answers.”
“They are growing more complex by the day. More than 103,000 Australians have died in service of this country, wearing our uniform with our flag on their left shoulder. We honour their sacrifice by ensuring this parliament takes Australia's national security responsibilities seriously. One thing the coalition will always stand for is proportionality and balance. We believe governments must have the powers necessary to protect Australia and protect Australians. The companion legislation before the House, the Secrecy Provisions Amendment (Sunsetting Provision) Bill 2026, is much narrower in scope but still important. Its purpose is to extend the operation of certain secrecy offences for a further six months, until 29 December 2026, while broader reforms are being implemented.”
“Foreign interference operations are more sophisticated than ever. Hostile state actors actively seek to obtain sensitive government information and exploit weaknesses in systems and institutions. Critical infrastructure is increasingly vulnerable to cyberattack and malicious interference. That is why secrecy laws cannot simply be viewed as dry administrative legislation. They form part of Australia's broader national resilience and national security framework. They should be part of a national security strategy, if this government ever gets around to implementing one. As somebody who has spent considerable time working on intelligence and national security matters through the PJCIS, I understand how serious these issues are. National security is not theoretical. The threats facing Australia today are real.”
“That is entirely understandable, because Australians expect highly sensitive personal and commercial in confidence information to remain protected. Australians expect their medical information to remain confidential—that shouldn't come as any surprise. Businesses expect commercially sensitive information provided to government to remain secure. Australians completing the census expect that the information they provide will remain protected and confidential. Without public trust, participation declines, and without participation, governments lose access to reliable information needed for policymaking and service delivery. These reforms must also be viewed in the context of the modern strategic environment and the increasingly complex threats facing Australia today. Cyberthreats have increased dramatically over the past decade.”