Andrew Southcott (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support the Prime Minister's motion and to support the measured approach that the Prime Minister has taken on this issue. There are three key messages from the Australian government. Firstly, the first priority of any Australian government is to keep people safe. Secondly, this approach is directed against terrorism and not against religion. Thirdly, Australians should feel comfortable going about their daily business. There is a heightened alert level, but people still should be able to go about their daily business.

On the first priority, that of keeping the Australian people safe, Australians should feel confident that in ASIO and the Australian Federal Police we have excellent institutions which are well led and which we should be very proud of. Successive Australian governments have developed an expertise against terrorism dating back to the 1978 bombings outside the Sydney Hilton Hotel. We have gained experience through the events of September 11 and through the bombings in Bali of October 2002 that saw the beginnings of a very strong cooperative relationship between the Australian Federal Police and the Indonesian police. We saw an attack on the Australian Embassy in Jakarta in 2004. There were the London bombings in 2005 and the Bali bombings in October 2005. Australians should feel confident that the steps that have been taken, going all the way back to 1978 but more recently following the September 11 bombings, mean that we are well served by ASIO and the Australian Federal Police. There have been a number of terrorist cells that have been disrupted. We have seen raids conducted in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. We saw the horrific attack on two policemen in Melbourne.

On the second message, and that is that this is directed against terrorism and not religion, I want to say how welcome is the strong leadership from Muslim leaders who have been prepared to really stand up and be counted and to denounce ISIL.

It is very important that the Muslim community do feel the warm embrace of the Australian nation, because they are key allies in addressing terrorism and extremism. This is not a problem that is isolated to Australia. We have heard that more than 80 countries have had citizens from their country travel to the Middle East to take part in terrorist activities. That is why the Australian government are taking a number of steps to address this. The concern now is that, with such easy international travel, it is possible for foreign fighters who learn to kill overseas to return to Australia to continue their murderous trade. We saw this with people who travelled to Afghanistan more than a decade ago. The Prime Minister's clear message to all Australians who fight with terrorist groups is that you will be arrested, prosecuted and jailed for a very long time.

There are a number of responses that this parliament has to take in addressing the financing of terrorism and in addressing metadata and making sure that our intelligence agencies are one step ahead and have an idea of what the terrorists are up to. In dealing with the commitment to the Middle East, we now have an air task group at our major base in the Middle East. Four hundred Air Force personnel are now there. Today we heard that some of the Australian assets there have commenced flights over Iraq.

One of the things which I think has been a very good development is that a very broad international coalition has formed to disrupt and degrade ISIL. There is wide involvement from the Gulf states and Arab nations. Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar are all involved. There are a number of NATO countries involved as well as the United States and the United Kingdom. As well as participating in humanitarian aid drops and assistance to the Kurdish regional government, the Australian Defence Force assets are ready to commence action against ISIL in Iraq.

A strong process has been mapped out for the steps that would be taken before going to that. Firstly, there would be a request from the Iraqi national government. The defence minister was in Iraq recently to make sure that the legal basis for any action in Iraq is very strong. Secondly, there would be a meeting of the National Security Committee of Cabinet, which would have briefings from the ADF, ASIO and the Australian Federal Police. The full cabinet would then make a decision and the opposition would also be briefed on this. I pay tribute to the role the opposition has played here.

Some people have talked about action in Syria. That is getting one step ahead. As I outlined, the process that has been outlined for action in Iraq is strong. That concludes my remarks. Our thoughts should be with all the ADF personnel who are now on pre-deployment in the Middle East. I was lucky enough to meet a number of them at Amberley and Williamtown in the last couple of weeks. They are a very professional group. They are, by and large, young Australian men and women. They will, no doubt, do us proud should they be required to take on this important task.

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