Mark Dreyfus

home nor do i that's not the discussion here the discussion is about breastfeeding and it cannot happen a man cannot breastfeed but a man cannot be a woman so then why do the laws say that if you don't allow this you could be sued as a small business owner

because Julia Gillard, under the stewardship of the then Attorney General Mark Dreyfus, introduced this into the Parliament and it had bipartisan support.

So the Coalition, with all due respect, can bleat all they like now after the fact about why this is a problem and I have tremendous respect for the likes of Michaelia Cash and others who have come out to rail against this issue.

But it's something that has been going on for some time now.

It relates to a change made to the criminal code by the Labor government in 2024.

The Attorney-General at the time, Mark Dreyfus, altered the definition of what constitutes an unlawful target.

Previously, three conditions had to be met to prove someone was out of the fight.

But after the 2024 reform, only one criteria had to be met.

Ben, because that's what we're told.

Ben, you have to understand, we didn't have the advisors.

We don't have, you know, you relied on the Coalition with the Attorney-General, which was Natalia Cash at the time, and to tell you the truth.

And they said it was a drafting issue.

It relates to a change made to the criminal code by the Labor government in 2024.

The Attorney-General at the time, Mark Dreyfus, altered the definition of what constitutes an unlawful target.

Previously, three conditions had to be met to prove someone was out of the fight.

But after the 2024 reform, only one criteria had to be met.

The AFP has consistently denied its counter-terrorism division is under-resourced or underfunded, since two gunmen allegedly opened fire on a Hanukkah event at Bondi Beach on December 14, killing 15 innocent people.

Referring in the interview with Fordham to a retroactive change made by then-Attorney General Mark Dreyfus in 2024, Robert Smith accused the Albanese Labor government of stacking war crimes legislation against him.

The change redefined the point at which a prisoner or detainee ceases to be an active combatant, lowering the threshold from three criteria to one.

Robert Smith said the update came amid the prosecution of former commando Oliver Schultz for war crimes offences and when the investigation into Robert Smith was already underway.

He accused our politicians of giving Israel impunity to kill thousands of children.

In 2023, he responded to a post from Labor MP Mark Dreyfus saying, you don't even call on Israel to stop.

Then in 2024, he took aim at the Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles, accusing him of assisting with mass murder.

He claimed the West was trying to keep the genocide going in Gaza.

Now, if Porter had decided that the journalist who made those inquiries had to be investigated for breaches of secrecy, then that would have made it very, very difficult.

whatever you think of Mark Dreyfus or any other attorney general, the fact is that they are just as vulnerable to journalistic investigation, to damaging news stories, to potentially embarrassing stories as anyone else.

And so I think giving them the power to make that decision is frankly dangerous.

As I said, regardless of which way they decide to go, if a journalist is being investigated, if they decide not to prosecute, that will also be seen as a political choice as much as a decision to prosecute.

Um, you know-

Can you actually imagine Labor members of parliament voting against this legislation? Can you imagine Mark Dreyfus voting against this legislation?

No.

No.

which could screen out people who shouldn't be coming to this country and screen out people on visas here who should be thrown out.

And that was disbanded by Claire O'Neill and Mark Dreyfus when Labor came into government, and it was an absolute disgrace.

Now, what impact would that have? We can never know.

But what we do know is they lost a critical capability in the process.

Michaelia Cash has said that, um, that they were misled by the government in 2024.

In 2024, the Coalition supported the government's amendment to the definition of hordes to combat on the basis of clear assurances by the then Attorney General, Mark Dreyfus, about-

Which was a little bit surprising because the definition, um, is, you know, perhaps 80 words.

You know, it'd been 80 words previously, then 90 words afterwards and, you know, it, it changed pretty significantly with a plain reading of, of those definitions.