Senator TROETH (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) (1:46 PM) —Before I sum up on the Telecommunications Interception and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2003, I would like to reply to some of Senator Greig's comments in which he compared Australian statistics on intercepts with statistics from the United States. You simply cannot compare the two schemes; they are different and have different legislative requirements. For example, Australian law enforcement agencies must obtain a warrant for all forms of communication, and the US laws provide for access separately in different fields of communication. I understand the Attorney-General discussed this issue in the other place when this bill was being considered. Without going into a great deal of detail, he made it clear that it is difficult to make direct comparisons between our statistics and those of the United States.

I am glad Senator Greig agrees that this bill is important for law enforcement in Australia. I do assure him that the trafficking of people into Australia is an issue of significant concern not only to the government but also to every law-abiding person in Australia. It will allow law enforcement agencies to obtain warrants to assist in the investigation of offences set out in the criminal code involving people-smuggling aggravated by exploitation, slavery, sexual servitude and deceptive recruiting. It will provide the AFP with an extremely effective tool to further assist in the investigations of these repugnant crimes.

As Senator Greig pointed out, the government has recently announced initiatives totalling $20 million, which include improved legislative preventive law enforcement and victim support measures. These initiatives, including the amendments in this bill, demonstrate clearly the government's commitment to investigating, preventing and prosecuting the insidious crime of trafficking in persons. All of these are valuable tools in the fight against serious organised crime and corruption. We want to provide effective tools for law enforcement while ensuring that appropriate safeguards are in place to protect individual rights. I commend the bill to the Senate.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.