Mal Brough (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I remember calling my wife in the middle of the night on September 11 and waking her and saying—I will never forget the words—'The world has gone mad.' Of course, that was as I watched the horrific footage of a jet ploughing into the Twin Towers. The world really had gone mad. It was impossible for me to be able to grasp the enormity of what I was seeing, and the reality of what I was seeing. I know that there were millions of people around the world feeling that way. But from that moment forward, terrorism—extreme Islam—in that form, has in fact impacted the freedoms of every person in the western world.

In this parliament in the last week we have been talking about extra hundreds of millions of dollars. How many trillions of dollars have been spent around the world? How many laws have been passed that have been argued about because they have infringed and impinged upon people's freedoms, freedoms that we just took for granted? It is because of a small minority of people, who have taken a religious fervour to a degree that is insane, that has required this to happen.

So when people say that this is a conflict on the other side of the world, it impacts us today. It impacted us yesterday and it will impact us tomorrow. It impacts us financially. What good could we be doing in health, in education and in infrastructure in this country—and in Britain, and in New Zealand, and in Canada, and in America and so many other places—if we were not having to spend so much money protecting what we should not need to protect, in the way that we are, and they are our freedoms. Our freedoms are what make us great. It is our democracy that sets us apart. It is those things combined that says, 'These and these are our values. And the people that we are are a result of those values, that democracy and those freedoms.'

I agree, and I support, the thrust of what both the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition said yesterday. However, the Prime Minister said, 'There is no likelihood, and there is no consideration, for ground troops by either America or Australia.' I would say today, in the cold light of the facts that are before us, nothing can be off the table. When we remove options from the table, we embolden our enemies. And as hard as that is to say—and I am not a warmonger, far from it—I am saying that we need to keep every element open to us, so that we can destroy and eliminate this threat to our way of life, to our democracies and to our freedoms.

Let us go from here to home. We talk about young men and some young women going to these foreign lands to be radicalised. But as one man wrote to me yesterday, he said, 'Surely they have already been radicalised, otherwise they would not be heading to the airport.' And, Sir, you are right. They have been. But how much more radicalisation goes on? How much more extremism, once they leave and they band with these people, when they are trained to kill, to kill without mercy, to kill without consideration, to kill without any sort of compunction or thought is beyond most people's rational thought? But that is what they are. They are equipped, they are trained and they are indoctrinated to a point beyond most of our life's experience, thank God. So, in destroying the places in which they receive that training, where they receive that indoctrination, where they receive that hatred for everything that is true and what we believe in in democracy and freedom, must be the highest priority of the world.

Today we stand in this parliament feeling deeply about what we are saying. However, when this moment passes, when this immediate threat is extinguished, it will not be extinguished. Let me recant, when the flame is dampened, but not extinguished, that flame will burn brightly again. And when it does, it will attract other young men and women around the world who will seek to do harm in their communities and in other places. It must be stopped.

So, I say to the world, that the UN today is calling for the world, as one, to act. We have Islamic nations, some who have appalling records themselves but see what is happening here as such an extreme that they too must act. But what happens after that moment passes? What happened after the moment passed on September 11?

We go back into our shells, we try and protect ourselves the best that we can, but we do not reach out to try and extinguish the flame. The world must act as one today, tomorrow and for however long it takes to extinguish the flame of hatred that seeks to destroy our way of life.

These are long-term commitments. They are expensive commitments. But reflect on the fact that we have already had things as dear to Australians as a grand final at the MCG potentially becoming a bloodbath—and only the extreme success of our law enforcement and our intelligence agencies have prevented that. At what cost does this come? The cost of doing nothing or doing too little will mean that we will, in the end, be responsible for some of the atrocities that I do not believe may occur, but will occur. They have in the past and they will again, unless we take complete control of the situation.

I will say a few words about our Islamic community here. I know they wish to be part of the solution, but they have not covered themselves in glory with the way in which they have attended to these issues in the last week or two. You may not be the leader of an Islamic community, but if you are a person of Islamic faith you have the same power as I do, and any other Australian does, to write letters to the press or get onto talkback radio and voice in unequivocal terms your total disdain for what is happening in the name of the religion you hold true. Anyone has the right to try and persuade another in this country to their way of belief, and long may it be so. But that is where it starts and that is where it ends. Australia looks to the Islamic community here—not only its elected leaders and its officials, but also its general public, those who do not have a position of authority other than that they are empowered by having the power of democracy and freedom of speech to exercise it and condemn these actions. Let us all walk as one, not as Australians of Islamic faith and those of non-Islamic faith. Let us all walk as one; let us speak as one; let us condemn it for what it is and let us identify as best we can those who would seek to go overseas and come back to cause pain. It is within our power to do so.

We have to be vigilant. We have to want to do it. And if we do, both in our own country—as individuals, as communities and as governments—and as an international community of both sovereign nations and united nations, then we can actually make a difference here. The battle will be long. The battle will have setbacks. But what we are playing for is something that has developed over hundreds of years, and that is the freedom of speech, the freedom of belonging and the freedom of religion.

Above all else in this country, the rule of law is one law for all, and I will advocate that for as long as there is breath in my body. I say to all leaders as they contemplate these issues: do not just focus on the immediate. The humanitarian needs are great; deal with them. But containment will not meet the needs of a world that faces a devastation and a hatred like we have never seen before. We act now, we act decisively and we act as one. If we do not, it will be us and our democracy that pays the penalty in the years to come, and no-one will thank us for our inaction.

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