Subjects: Australian Federal Police canine capabilities demonstration, AFP pay negotiations, eSafety, anti-siphoning legislation, live sheep exports.
ATTORNEY-GENERAL: I’m here with Assistant Commissioner Allison Wegg at the AFP’s Majura facility at the National Canine Training Facility. We’ve just had a fantastic demonstration of the technology dogs and the high-risk explosive detection dogs. The Australian Federal Police has developed world-leading capability here, which other countries have expressed interest in, AFP officers are now training to create similar capabilities in other countries. It’s a wonderful demonstration of the work that is done every day by the Australian Federal Police to keep our community safe and I’ve been really, really impressed not only to see the capacity of these dogs, but to have a wonderful cuddle with some four month old trainee puppies who I don’t think start their formal training for another year or so, but you can see from the energy the kind of capacity that they’re looking for in these dogs.
JOURNALIST: Attorney-General, do you see any potential for compromise in the negotiations with the federal police on their enterprise bargaining agreement?
ATTORNEY-GENERAL: The Australian Federal Police and all of the Australian Federal Police officers do wonderful work keeping our communities safe across our country every single day. The negotiations that are now taking place are ongoing negotiations. I know that the AFP has made an offer of additional benefits to the officers and I’m hopeful of a resolution of this matter.
JOURNALIST: On anti-siphoning laws, would the government consider making them stronger to include digital platforms to keep sport free when it’s not sent to a home by an aerial, where it’s sent by the internet?
ATTORNEY-GENERAL: Well, the purpose of this legislation is to make sure that free to air broadcasters are going to be able to continue to broadcast iconic sporting events and events of national importance. I’ll leave the detail about the legislation to the Minister for Communications, appropriately.
JOURNALIST: Attorney-General, just on a federal court decision, the federal court has decided not to extend an injunction on X Corp when it comes to this video of the Sydney stabbing, one of the Sydney stabbings. What do you think that decision says about the Australian Government’s laws and their ability to be able to control things on the internet?
ATTORNEY-GENERAL: This decision, of course, has literally just happened and I’ve just been made aware of it. The government will closely examine the detail of the decision that’s been made by a court. But I will say this, the Australian government expects all companies operating in Australia to comply with Australian law and we expect companies to pay close attention to the kind of material that is being broadcast on platforms. We don’t want to see offensive material getting wide currency.
JOURNALIST: Do you think that Australian laws should be able to control what people see globally on the internet?
ATTORNEY-GENERAL: I’m going to leave the detail of that to the Minister of Communications. As I say this decision has just happened and we’ll be closely examining the detail of the decision.
JOURNALIST: Did the Animal Justice Party do a deal with you to give you their preferences in the Dunkley byelection in exchange for ending live sheep exports?
ATTORNEY-GENERAL: On live sheep exports, this is a very long-standing commitment of the Australian Labor Party. We took the commitment to end live sheep exports to the 2019 election, to the 2022 election and we are honouring that commitment.
