MARK DREYFUS MP

Labor supports the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Amendment Bill 2020. We welcome the long-overdue repeal of the questioning and detention warrant power, a power which has never been used and which, since 2016, the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security and multiple independent national security legislation monitors have repeatedly told the government to repeal.

There's a wonderful richness and variation across the Jewish festivals. And to me Chanukah has always been a particularly uplifting celebration.

As one of the most difficult years in recent memory draws to a close, I want to pay tribute today to the fantastic community spirit of the people in my electorate of Isaacs.

This Sunday marks two years since the Prime Minister and his Attorney-General belatedly, grudgingly announced to Australians they would establish a national integrity commission.

The financial cost of Robodebt, as appalling as it is, pales next to the toll in human suffering this Government callously inflicted on the hundreds of thousands of vulnerable Australians who received unlawful Robodebt debt notices. 

Like most of the great social reforms that have occurred in Australia—including Medicare, our world-leading superannuation system, the anti-discrimination law framework and the provision of free legal assistance services to Australians in need—the Family Court of Australia is a proud Labor legacy. Australians are used to the Liberal Party attacking and seeking to undermine these and other great social reforms introduced by Labor governments.

If Rotten Tomatoes reviewed anti-corruption bodies, the Morrison Government's integrity commission would be certified rotten, with a score of zero.

Yitzhak Rabin was one of Israel’s greatest Prime Ministers. He stands in the same company as renowned Labor leaders like David Ben Gurion and Golda Meir.  But not only that, Rabin’s courage and integrity in that role makes him stand out as one of the great global leaders of the past generation. 

The ever-growing list of scandals involving the Morrison Government shows why Australia urgently needs a powerful and independent national integrity commission.

The Intelligence and Security Committee has unanimously concluded that existing Australian law does not adequately protect freedom of the press, or the public's right to know, and significant reforms are needed.