George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

Yes I can, Senator Bushby. Yesterday, in answer to a question from Senator Fawcett, I told the Senate about the additional resources the government has decided to make available to the national security agencies. The government's legislative response is a threefold response. First of all in the last sitting fortnight of the previous parliamentary sittings, I introduced the National Security Legislation Amendment Bill to strengthen the ability of the Australian intelligence community to counter threat, such as terrorism. That bill is the subject of report by the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Intelligence and Security due next week. In the event of a favourable report, as we anticipate, we will proceed with that legislation. I will be shortly introducing the legislation which I announced with the Prime Minister on 5 August to deal with the threat of foreign fighters and, later in the sittings, I will be introducing legislation to give effect to a mandatory data retention regime.