Tim Watts (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this ministerial statement on national security in order to address some of the fears on national security that are currently being felt in communities around the country. Unfortunately, the recent consideration of national security issues by this parliament has occurred in the context of a national fever dream of fear and paranoia about our Islamic community. In recent times we have seen sections of the media, both mainstream and social media, caught up in a hysteria about our Islamic community. We have also seen comments from members of parliament, almost universally representing areas with very small Islamic communities, attacking the choice of some women in the Islamic community to wear the burqa, the niqab or the hijab. The public statements of politicians and media reports relating to our Islamic community have real-world consequences.

I recently visited members of my Islamic community for Friday prayers and heard firsthand of the increase in harassment being experienced by members of this Australian community on public transport, in public places and, most depressingly of all, in our schools. As a member representing an electorate with a large Islamic community I want to send a very clear message on this issue: no-one in Australia has anything to fear from our Islamic community. There are almost 500,000 Muslims in Australia. In contrast, there are about a handful of perverted fanatics in this country who would seek to hijack this religion and commit criminal acts in its name. The recent legislative actions of this parliament and the recent activities of our intelligence and law enforcement agencies are not targeted at the Islamic community in our country. They are targeted at a vanishingly small minority of individuals whose actions demonstrate that they are planning or supporting terrorist actions.

My electorate is home to a diverse range of Islamic communities from a range of ethnic backgrounds. However, whilst these communities may be diverse, every one of them shares the same hopes and dreams for their future and the future of this country as other Australians. I am proud of the mark that Muslims have made in our community in Melbourne's west.

I want to take this opportunity to highlight some of these contributions. One of our favourite Islamic sons has made his mark literally on the Australian Rules Football field. As a product of the Spotsford Football Club and the Western Jets, Richmond Tiger star Bachar Houli is a symbol to the rest of the nation of the success of multiculturalism in Melbourne's west and the enormous contribution that our Islamic community makes to it. He has been breaking down the barriers of ignorance between Muslims and the broader community for his entire career. As Martin Flanagan recently wrote in The Age:

When Bachar was 16, he captained the Vic Metro team at the national championships. His roommate liked loud music and had the TV on all the time. In the end, Bachar told his teammate that he was a Muslim and had to pray—could the television go down a little? His teammate was so impressed he got Bachar to talk to the whole team about being a Muslim. That, says Bachar Houli, was "the turning point".

Since this turning point, Bachar has worked hard to make footy, one of our great Australian institutions, more accessible to Australians from all walks of life. He founded the Bachar Houli Academy, for junior players of Islamic background with high potential, to inspire and assist the new generation of Muslim leaders to live their dream of playing in the AFL.

Sport is the great leveller in our society. It is one of those places where people from all backgrounds can leave the everyday traffic lanes of their ethnic, religious and class backgrounds and engage on an equal basis with people from backgrounds they would not ordinarily be exposed to. In this way, institutions like footy are some of the most important places to promote an increased understanding between the diverse groups in our community and Bachar's efforts in this respect cannot be underestimated.

Bachar's family are still active in the Newport Islamic Society, as are business and community leaders from the surrounding suburbs in my electorate. The Newport Islamic Society is currently working to expand its presence in our community through the construction of a new mosque designed by internationally acclaimed Australian architect Glenn Murcutt. When completed it will be one of the most striking pieces of architecture in Melbourne's west and something the whole community will be able to take pride in. A centre for prayer, learning and community activities, the mosque's design is dominated by two soaring wings leading to its entrance. This design is intended to symbolise the mosque's 'open arms to all members of our Australian society'. In a building with such spiritual significance to my local Islamic community, the symbolic message of its design cannot be missed. Near the mosque, in Altona North, is the home of Oussama Abou-Zeid, who was this year elected as premier of the Victorian youth parliament. Advocating in that youth parliament for 24-hour public transport in Melbourne's west, Oussama is intelligent, articulate and passionate about the community he lives in. He is proud of his religious faith, just as he is proud of Australia. He recently told ABC Breakfast News: 'I love my country. My parents are from the Middle East but I come from Australia. We are very multicultural. We are very welcoming. In my school there are more than 60 nationalities and it shows the diversity of our state.' I know Osama personally. He has a very promising future in front of him.

If you travel a little further north it is hard to miss the distinctive Sunshine Mosque on the skyline of Melbourne's west. It is home to the Turkish Cypriot community of Sunshine, acting as a community hub as well as a place of worship. It is at places like Sunshine Mosque that we see some of the most altruistic charity work in Melbourne's west. The community spirit of members in this mosque is clear from the wide range of charitable works that are discussed at the mosque's iftars every year.

The Australian Light Foundation, in Tottenham, is another Islamic group in my electorate that the community can take pride in. As well as being a centre for worship, it has recently coordinated aid programs in South Sudan, Ethiopia and Iraq. Locally, it has helped newly arrived asylum seekers get settled into the community by providing resourcing and support. It aims to provide a positive image of Islamic culture to the wider community of Melbourne's west.

These organisations are just some of the Islamic communities throughout Melbourne's west that contribute to making our society a better place every day. They are examples of the richness of culture and spirit found in the Islamic communities of Australia and I am proud to have them in my electorate. As their representative in this place it pains me that members of these communities feel that in recent times they have been treated by other members of the community as objects of suspicion. In situations, both subtly and overtly, their patriotism has been questioned. It is in this atmosphere that the recent reforms to our national security legislation have been debated. It is important, however, to note that the bill that was debated in the House today was not developed in response to recent events in Iraq or Syria. It was not a response to the heightened security environment and terror raids we have seen in recent weeks. These reforms are the result of a longstanding committee of inquiry into Australia's national security laws initiated by the previous Labor government. This was initiated in May 2012 under the then Attorney-General Nicola Roxon—my predecessor in Gellibrand and a staunch advocate of the rights of the Islamic community in groups in Melbourne's west.

The committee's inquiry into the architecture of Australia's national security legislation was extensive, with 236 submitters invited to appear at an inquiry that took a year to complete. The committee released recommendations for reform of these laws in June 2013 and it is these recommendations that were originally introduced into the Senate by the Abbott government in July this year. These recommendations, however, required further consideration before they were to become law. It is important to ensure that our national security agencies have the powers available to them to keep Australia safe. But equally these powers must be subjected to thorough oversight and accountability mechanisms to ensure that they are being used appropriately, and they must be properly balanced against the importance of protecting the human rights of all members of our community. So Labor, through the committee process, initiated a review into the impact of the proposed changes to the national security laws. In writing its report the committee strongly recommended 18 amendments to this bill. Many of these amendments ensure that intelligence operations and any related criminal sanctions are subjected to additional constraints and balances. Labor, through the committee process, advocated strongly for these amendments.

Last week we saw the introduction of these amendments into the Senate with the support of both the government and the opposition. Let me be clear: the bipartisan support for the bill that was debated in the parliament today is the result of a detailed and thorough policy process during which different views clashed and Labor's concerns about aspects of the reforms were frequently put. It is unfortunate that this lengthy process has been conflated in the public debate with recent security events. The average man or woman on the street sees the beheading of James Foley on the other side of the world, armed guards walking around Parliament House and the changes in the powers of our intelligence agencies contained in the national security reforms debated today and assumes they are part of the same equation. It is critical that we bring clarity to this confusion, that we separate the elements out of the equation and allay the fears of the groups in our community.

Creating and continuing lines of communication are essential to stop the communities in our society from being isolated and to stop our Islamic communities from feeling alienated. Initiatives like the one occurring next door to us, where the Muslim Leadership Program, a part of the Centre for Dialogue at La Trobe University, and the Islamic Associate of Australia have brought a series of young leaders to Parliament House to hear from their representatives and make their views clear to them are important in this respect. It is a problem both for our community and for our law enforcement agencies if our Islamic community feels targeted as a group by our response to the threat of terrorism.

As leaders in our community, the members of this parliament must work together to counter this confusion in the Australian community. We must ensure that, on the one hand, every domestic terror threat is treated by our law enforcement agencies with the seriousness that it deserves, but also that every Muslim walking the streets of my electorate who is subject to violence or intimidation is also protected by our legal system. I am proud to represent the communities that produced Bachar Houli and Oussama Abou-Zeid as well as many others who work within our community to make Melbourne's west such a diverse and wonderful place to live. It pains me greatly that these communities feel targeted as a result of these laws. All of us in this place must work together to ensure that our Islamic community and the Muslim members of our society are treated with the respect and tolerance that they deserve while we fight this important security threat.

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