Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I speak in favour of the motion and put on the record what a pleasure it is to support the member for Bass in his motion. He has played a crucial role in the deliberations of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security on three major pieces of national security legislation that the parliament has passed. He is a keen advocate for making sure we do everything we can to defeat the scourge of terrorism. I place on the record my respect not only for his record with the Australian Defence Force as a civilian in the Australian defence department but also for the wonderful contribution he has already made in this parliament.

It is a great pleasure and honour to support him on this private member's motion, which recognises the need to destroy, degrade or contain terrorism in all its forms in source or original countries and recognises the clear and present threat posed by transnational terrorism in our region. It goes on to mention the sustained efforts of both the ADF and our civilian national security agencies to identify, attack and degrade foreign or source nation terrorist threats. I will not read the whole motion. I urge those who have a keen interest in this area to look at what the motion is about. It acknowledges the government's active and constructive efforts to do all within its powers to halt terrorism at its source or points of origin. The Attorney-General's Department has led and implemented a diverse array of constructive initiatives and measures in support of community safety and resilience which will further complement offshore counter-terrorist initiatives and endeavours.

Today I would like to address the fact that one of the things the government is now looking at is what should we do with regard to citizenship, that great privilege that is bestowed upon people when they are granted Australian citizenship? Obviously we are going to move when it comes to dual citizenship. The government wants to be able to act against those individuals who act against us by either conducting terrorist activities or advocating terrorist activities against our nation, those who, let us be frank about it, want to commit treason against our nation. We are going to do that when it comes to dual citizenship. My hope is that we will get in-principle agreement from those opposite to do so.

One of the other things that there is a lot of support for within the government is for us to move to be able to implement the United Kingdom laws which mean that the government can also act against those who could avail themselves of another citizenship. It is my view and the view of others that we should look seriously at the UK laws and seek to implement the model that they have brought forward there, because it would enable us once again to act against those who have committed treason. I know the chief sponsor of this motion is someone who actively supports this, and there are another 38 members of the backbench who have put their names to this resolution. I would ask those opposite to consider the UK model as well. It does have judicial safeguards which are put in place as part of it, but it is something that they felt it was necessary to put in place over there, and I think it is another tool that we need available to us to fight treason in this country. It is very much a way for us to modernise our treason laws.

The scourge of home-grown terrorism and of the terrorist activities which are taking place, especially when it comes to the Daesh death cult, is something that we have not seen the like of in this nation. It presents serious challenges to our national security. It is an issue which the government takes extraordinarily seriously. That is why we put through the parliament three major pieces of national security legislation. It is why the government is looking at further measures to keep our nation safe. We will not keep our nation safe if we do not tackle terrorism head on. That is the approach that this government is determined to take, and we will continue to advocate to destroy the Daesh death cult. (Time expired)

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