Senator ELLISON (Minister for Justice and Customs) (8:32 PM) —I think Senator Brown has missed the point. He is assuming that ASIO at the outset knows that the people at the table have information which is relevant but they choose to issue a warrant only against the one person. I understand that you are saying that they issue the warrant against the one person and then, relying on the same information which was available to them, they issue another warrant against the same person to get further information about the other people at the table. Is that what I am understanding you to say?

Senator Brown —That is right.

Senator ELLISON —ASIO would have a problem because at the outset they had all that information—

Senator Robert Ray —Exactly.

Senator ELLISON —And that is the point that Senator Ray made in answering Senator Greig's question. They could not do that and that, I think, is squarely dealt with in the government's amendments. They cannot have those subsequent warrants issued and they are staggering it, if you like, to suit themselves when they had all that information at the very outset.

The TEMPORARY CHAIRMAN (Senator Chapman)—The question is that Senator Brown's amendment (1) on sheet 2978, as amended, be agreed to.

Question negatived.