Michael Keenan (Stirling, Liberal Party, Minister for Justice) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for La Trobe for that question and acknowledge that he is somewhat of an expert on national security matters as a former Victorian police officer in their counterterrorism division. I also acknowledge that his electorate has, sadly, suffered firsthand from some of the challenges we are facing on the terror front at the moment. That threat cannot be overstated.

Since September last year we have had 23 people charged as a result of eight counterterrorism operations. That is fully one-third of people arrested for terror related offences since 2001. We know we have at least 100 Australians fighting alongside terror organisations in Syria and Iraq, and 30 people have returned to Australia after supporting those organisations. There are 140 Australians actively supporting extremist groups in the Middle East from here. ASIO is managing 400 high-priority counterterrorism investigations, and this is double the number that they were dealing with just 12 months ago.

I know that the member for La Trobe has been campaigning hard to secure important programs in his electorate that counter violence extremism. They are programs such as the MyHack initiative which involves a series of youth-led events to develop practical solutions that actually counter radicalisation. This program provides youth with alternative pathways so as to prevent the process of radicalisation before it can become a danger to our society. This is vitally important because young people are often left out of the process of developing these solutions, and it is of course young people who are actually being targeted by the Daesh death cult in the Middle East to become violent extremists at home.

The government and the member for La Trobe take these issues of national security very seriously. We are doing all we can to stop people moving down this dark and hateful path. That is why I have been particularly concerned to have read comments from the Labor candidate for La Trobe who said that the member for La Trobe was scaremongering when the member rightly raised these issues in the House when talking about the Hackathon event that he ran in his electorate. He also went on to describe our plans to deter youth radicalisation as irresponsible.

This comes on top of what we heard from the Leader of the Opposition yesterday who accused the government of dog whistling when the Prime Minister was on his feet talking about national security issues. It is a term that has, again, been confirmed by the member for Lalor consistently in this chamber today. Given these comments by the Labor candidate for La Trobe, a Mr Simon Curtis, the Leader of the Opposition and the member for Lalor, I call on the opposition to make it clear that they still support our vital efforts to counter violence extremism and renew what has been, to date, a bipartisan approach on national security issues.

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