Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am very proud to rise to speak on the Counter-Terrorism Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 1) 2014. As we have heard this evening, this bill is an important part of the government's comprehensive plan to combat terrorism. Recent actions in Australia and overseas have heightened the security threat, requiring us to act quickly and strongly to combat that threat. Australia is, of course, participating in air strikes in Iraq as part of the international coalition formed to disrupt and degrade the dreaded ISIL.

Unfortunately it is not just in Iraq or in Syria where the threat is posed. In Australia, we have seen some disturbing developments, particularly an incident in my home state of Victoria. These lone-wolf attacks add a whole new dimension to fighting terrorism and, frankly, are frightening. Other lone-wolf attacks around the world remind us just how easy it is to carry out an act of terrorism. As former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair said on 19 March back in 2003, when he opened a debate on the Iraq crisis in the House of Commons:

The purpose of terrorism lies not just in the violent act itself. It is in producing terror. It sets out to inflame, to divide, to produce consequences which they then use to justify further terror.

We cannot let the terrorists achieve their aims. As the honoured representatives of the people of this great country, it is incumbent upon all of us to leave no stone unturned in keeping people safe and ensuring people can go about their lives free of fear.

We have witnessed some truly frightening events unfold in this country and abroad in recent times; hence the need to act decisively and quickly. The hideous reality of terrorism, especially the lone-wolf terrorism, was thrust onto the front pages of the newspapers around the world in May 2013, when UK soldier Lee Rigby was brutally and savagely murdered on the streets of London in broad daylight. We would have to agree that that was one of the most horrific, distressing and shocking incidents that we have seen occur on any street in any city in any part of the world.

As everyone in this House and those watching at home will no doubt vividly recall, there was a terrifying incident in Endeavour Hills in my home state of Victoria just a number of months ago. Eighteen-year-old Numan Haider was shot dead after he stabbed a Victoria Police officer and an Australian Federal Police member. At a time when there was some debate about whether the government was overreacting, that really brought home that we are dealing with a terrorist threat on our own doorstep. My parliamentary colleagues here in Canberra and I feel it every day.

We particularly felt it after seeing what happened in Canada, when 24-year-old soldier Nathan Cirillo was shot dead while standing guard at the nation's war memorial. The gunman, Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, then went on a rampage through Canada's parliament before being shot dead himself by a very heroic sergeant-at-arms, Ken Vickers. That brought home to all members and senators in this parliament and the many hundreds of people who work here in Parliament House the need to act quickly and to act decisively. There has been so much bipartisanship in response to the increased terrorism threat. I am very proud of how we as a parliament as a whole have responded to what can only be called an increasing crisis.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott told the parliament on 22 September this year:

All that would be needed to conduct such an attack is a knife, a camera-phone and a victim.

To quote the United States President, Barack Obama, from his 10 December 2009 Nobel lecture address:

Terrorism has long been a tactic, but modern technology allows a few small men with outsized rage to murder innocents on a horrific scale.

These types of incidents both at home and abroad remind us that we need to be vigilant and that the threat of terrorism can never be extinguished altogether. Terrorism strikes at the heart of everything we hold dear as a peace-loving nation. It is so important that we as a government, that we as a parliament, representing this great nation do everything we can to stop this abhorrent threat, as best we can, in its tracks. We are determined to do everything within our power to keep Australians safe.

Much of the recent concerns can be attributed to the rise of ISIL, that dreaded death cult. I addressed the rise of ISIL in this parliament on the day we learned about the horrific murder of American journalist Stephen Sotloff and just weeks after the murder James Foley. Unfortunately, Mr Sotloff lost and Mr Foley were among many who have been killed by ISIL fanatics in Iraq and Syria. As a former journalist myself I cannot begin to express the distress and horror of what those men endured and what so many other men, women and children are enduring in Iraq in Syria. It is beyond comprehension.

These men were just doing their jobs. They were there on the front-line as journalists, telling the world what was going on. It is very hard for me to talk about this. I worked as a journalist from many years not in nearly as dangerous a situation as that, but I cannot rate those journalists highly enough in how they conduct themselves in what they do to share with the world the stories of horror that are going on in that part of the world.

What we are seeing at the moment—and Amnesty International has warned of this—is ethnic cleansing on a historic scale. The situation can only be described as a nightmare. Most of us have Facebook—there are some 10 million Facebook accounts in Australia—and I find it incredibly confronting that even on social media we are seeing these are horrific images that are posted with utter glee and abandon by the perpetrators of the most evil of crimes. It is unspeakable evil. I find it disgusting that these people claim to be an Islamic 'state'. Nothing could be further from the truth. The vast majority of Muslims are peace-loving people who should not even be remotely linked with these murderers, these most evil of men and women.

Former Australian Prime Minister John Howard, on 23 October 2003, in an address in this House said:

… terrorists oppose nations such as the United States and Australia not because of what we have done but because of who we are and because of the values that we hold in common, and that terrorism—and we should remind ourselves of this again and again—is as much the enemy of Islam as it is the enemy of Judaism or Christianity.

It is vital that we remember that. It is vital that we stick together as Australians, regardless of religion or belief.

As we have heard the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and so many others say in this House, this has nothing to do with religion. This has to do with the most horrific extremism by a death cult that has no regard for human life or dignity. The vast majority of us share a desire for peace and freedom, values which are such an intrinsic part of the Australian identity. This bill reflects our absolute determination that we will not let those values that we hold so dear to us be shattered. We will not to be broken by what is going on, both on our own doorstep and in Iraq and Syria.

This bill particularly responds to the threat posed by Australians participating in and supporting foreign conflicts or undertaking training with extremist groups, such as ISIL. It will improve the ability of law enforcement and intelligence agencies to respond to these threats through necessary and urgent amendments to national security legislation to address limitations identified in the course of recent operations. These operations include the deployment of the Australian Defence Force to undertake military operations against ISIL in Iraq and the recent Operation Appleby that disrupted an alleged terrorist an attack in Sydney.

On that note I want to make particular reference to all those men and women who are working so hard behind the scenes to keep us safe. Australians probably only get a glimmer of what they do and how much work that is going on behind the scenes to keep Australians safe. The 24/7 operation of so many of our great security agencies we sadly as Australians do not understand. We do not understand the scope of their work, how difficult it is and perhaps how many times they have averted a horrific situation on our doorstep.

Madam Speaker, I see you have taken the chair. Welcome. We believe that 70 or 80 known Australians have left our country and are fighting in Syria and Iraq. We have seen some images of some of those Australians. Some of them are very young, clearly misguided. It is beyond comprehension that the likes of young children and 16- and 17-year-old boys could end up involved in this. The government does think that there are perhaps another 100 in Australia who are supporting, facilitating and funding this behaviour. Once they leave that become radicalised, and that is a huge threat to our way of life. Returning to our shores poses a huge threat to Australians here. The reality is that the rise of ISIL presents a real threat of terrorist attacks in Australia and we must take the very firm action that we as a government are taking. There is a concern that Australians fighting with ISIL will learn the terrorist trade and come back to Australia. For all those reasons, I commend this bill to the House.

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