the strange history of the ASIO bill II
On 13 December 2002 the prime minister said:

And what I say to the Labor Party is, the nation needs a stronger ASIO bill, you remain silent in the face of what the New South Wales Labor Government has done and if this bill does not go through and we are not able to clothe our intelligence agencies with this additional authority over the summer months it will be on the head of the Australian Labor Party and on nobody else's head.

Parliament first sat after that on 4 February 2003.

The ASIO bill was reintroduced on 20 March

On 13 December failure to pass the bill was a threat to the lives of Australians and any death would be on the heads of the ALP. That argument, extreme, vicious and vacuous as it was, stood from 13 December, the last sitting day last year until 4 February. If the bill was desperately urgent on 13 December why was it not reintroduced until 20 March? On who's head would the blame have fallen during the more than a month that this allegedly vital bill was neglected? Who left the intelligence agencies naked between 4 February and 20 March? And why bring it back at this precise time when there are rumours of a double dissolution in April?