Arch Bevis (Brisbane, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, I present the Committee’s report entitled Review of the re-listing of Al-Qa’ida (AQ), Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) and Al-Qa’ida in the lands of Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) as terrorist organisations under the Criminal Code Act 1995.

Ordered that the report be made a parliamentary paper.

Al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah were originally listed on 21 and 27 October 2002 and relisted on 31 August 2004 with effect on 1 September 2004. The committee first considered the listing of al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah in 2004 with the committee’s role in the Criminal Code procedure having been established. Both organisations were relisted on 4 September 2006, and the committee subsequently reviewed the relisting, reporting to parliament in October 2006.

Al-Qaeda in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb was originally listed under the name Salafist Group for Call and Combat, the GSPC, in 2002 following their listing by the United Nations Security Council. The committee first considered the listing of the GSPC in 2004 after the committee’s role in the criminal procedures had been established. The GSPC was relisted on 5 November 2004 and again on 1 November 2006. The regulations were signed by the Governor-General on 7 August 2008. They were then tabled in the House of Representatives and the Senate on 26 August. The disallowance period of 15 sitting days for the committee’s review of the listing began from the date of the tabling. Therefore, the committee has sought to have this report before the parliament today, 13 October 2008.

Notice of the inquiry was placed on the committee’s website. No submissions were received from the public. Representatives of the Attorney-General’s Department and ASIO attended private hearings on these matters. The committee heard evidence that each of these three organisations continue to engage in, and offer support for, terrorist acts. The assessed likelihood that Al-Qaeda has shifted some of its focus from Iraq to Afghanistan makes it likely that Australian troops in Afghanistan confront armed forces linked to Al-Qaeda.

Although there have been no anti-Western attacks committed by Jemaah Islamiyah in South-East Asia since the last relisting, the committee heard that within Indonesia it is reported that JI has engaged in terrorist activities, including assassinations and bombings. Al-Qaeda in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb’s most significant attack on Western interests was the 11 December 2007 suicide bombing attack on the UN office in Algiers, which killed 17 people. This constituted the worst attack on the United Nations since the bombing of the UN headquarters in Iraq in 2003. In view of this and the other matters contained in the report that I have just tabled, the committee does not recommend to the parliament that the regulations made to proscribe these three organisations be disallowed.

In conclusion, I take this opportunity to thank fellow members of the committee, who have worked as they have in previous parliaments in a constructive and bipartisan manner, and the secretariat: Mr Robert Little, Ms Philippa Davies and Mrs Donna Quintus-Bosz for their support of our important work. I commend the report to the House.

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