QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Senator AYRES (New South Wales—Minister for Industry and Innovation and Minister for Science) (14:36): Thanks to Senator Pocock for that question. The position that was outlined by me, every time I've been asked, by the Attorney-General and by the Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for the Arts has been very clear on this question—firstly, that there will not be an undermining of copyright protections for Australian artists or Australian copyright holders.

I'll come to that in a moment. It is also that it is in Australia's interest, not just in economic terms, not just in terms of productivity and growth—and that is certainly the case—but in our strategic interest as a middle-power economy in the world, for us to secure as much of the technology stack as possible, particularly those parts of the stack where Australia has competitive advantage and where we can exercise agency and control in the interests of Australia, because it is not this government's view that we should just be a cork bobbing on the ocean of other people's technology and a customer at the end of long technology supply chains.

That is not in our interest. It sells out future generations. Some of the things that have been said in this debate by some of the participants have been reckless about that and have sold out future generations, their security and our national resilience.

We will meet these objectives in a careful way in the Australian national interest. The PRESIDENT: Senator Pocock, first supplementary?