Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Counter-Terrorism Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 1) 2014. Certainly this is a very important piece of legislation. The Labor opposition acknowledges that; the coalition recognises that; it is a shame that the member for Melbourne does not. Whilst I appreciate the fact that he made some good points as to our need to safeguard Australia and some accurate points in saying that the acts that we have seen recently in Syria and Iraq have been abhorrent, the fact that he continually goes on the public record and says that our actions in the Middle East are making Australia unsafe and the fact that he talks about it being a conflict in the Middle East that is not ours are troubling. I do hope we do not see what we normally see at the end of these sorts of debates: a try-on, a stunt, a series of amendments holding up the parliament in this important last week of 2014, backed by the member for Denison, who is just suffering from relevance deprivation syndrome. So I do hope that they get on board and that they help the coalition—indeed, help the opposition—to pass this important bill.

The measures in this bill will ensure that our intelligence and law enforcement agencies have the capability to operate effectively in the contemporary security environment; in particular, following the rise of IS—call it 'ISIL' or call it 'ISIS'—in the Middle East. The acronym obviously stands for 'Islamic State'; it is not a state, however. A state has a government which looks after its people—governs for the people on behalf of the people by the people. A state does not tear down. A state does not treat some of its citizens to the dreadful acts of barbarism, the death and torture that we have seen all too frequently in recent times coming out of the Middle East. A state builds things. A state looks after infrastructure like hospitals, and health—those sorts of things that are important and that we acknowledge and know are so crucial to a better future. And we, in this chamber, all want a better future for Australia.

We, in this chamber, all want a better future for the Middle East. I was there in August. I went there with the Liberal South Australian Senator Sean Edwards, as well as the member for McEwen and the member for Batman, the shadow parliamentary secretary. We learned from our wonderful men and women of the Australian Defence Force just how important it was to have not just a presence camped there and in other important strategic places in the Middle East—not least Afghanistan, though, obviously, we are getting our troops out of there—but certainly to have an ongoing presence in the Middle East, because to have a friend you need to be a friend; that is what the head of defence operations there, Craig Orme, continually said. He should know; he has been there on a number of deployments. He is a person who we all admired before he went there, but certainly we respected him even more from having met him and having been there on engagement in that area and having gone to Afghanistan with him on a Hercules; we saw the respect in which he is held by the American generals and the absolute admiration and respect in which he is held by our own people over there—Army, Royal Australian Air Force and Royal Australian Navy. And to see the job that they are doing is truly a great thing.

In relation to the counter-terrorism legislation amendment bill we have before the House, these operational needs have been further identified by our intelligence, defence, border protection and law enforcement agencies following the foreign fighters bill which was passed with support from both sides of the House on 31 October, and amendments to the National Security Legislation Amendment Bill which occurred on 2 October. The bill now before the House will also implement further recommendations made by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security following the parliament passing the foreign fighters bill as referred to previously.

The further amendments proposed through this bill are part of the government's comprehensive response to heightened security threats and hostility, both at home and internationally—in particular, to those posed by Australians participating in and supporting extremist groups and foreign conflicts, as we have seen in the Middle East all too often lately.

This country is proud of its diverse, multicultural heritage, and there is no region as diverse as Griffith in my electorate of Riverina. I actually call it the cradle of multiculturalism. People get on well there.

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