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

I thank the member for Bass for that question. I appreciate his deep interest in matters in relation to national security but also, importantly, the experience that he brings to this parliament from an enormous number of years serving in the Australian military—and in conflict zones, of course, during that period.

This government takes its responsibilities for national security extremely seriously. Indeed, keeping the Australian people safe is the primary consideration of this federal government. As the member said, we have taken significant legislative measures, in conjunction with the opposition, to make sure that our legislative regime is now fit for purpose—because the threat that we are facing now is very different to the threat that we have faced in the past. What we have found, due to a significant deterioration of the security situation in Syria and Iraq, is that terrorist organisations there, even though they are mediaeval organisations, are using modern social media to reach into the lounge rooms and bedrooms of our young people in particular and radicalise them. Part of that radicalisation process is in urging them to go and commit a terrorist act using the materials that are available to them. Some are just referred to as lone-wolf attacks—we do not always use that terminology, but the point is that the security situation has been significantly degraded. The threat is different than it used to be and we need to now respond appropriately by making sure we have the legislative balance right but also by making sure, as the member suggests, that our agencies have the resources that they need to do this job.

The parliament has done a good job in updating the legislation. We will continue to monitor that and update it as required based on the operational advice, in particular, that we get from our agencies. But the government must also provide the resources that our agencies need, and this budget has certainly done that. One point three five billion dollars has been provided to keep Australians safe from the threat of terrorism. One point two billion dollars, which is part of that $1.35 billion, supports our efforts specifically to combat terrorism, comprising $450 million in this budget to strengthen our intelligence capabilities and to counter extremist messaging; $296 million to strengthen the capabilities of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service, including updating its IT systems; and $22 million to counter terrorist lies and propaganda online. We need to make sure that, when that propaganda is out there, we are working with Twitter, Google, Facebook and other internet service providers to tear that propaganda down as quickly as we humanly can. We also need to make sure that, if you are getting propaganda online, other, more positive messaging is available to you. One point three million dollars will assist telecommunications providers to upgrade their systems so we can retain a limited set of metadata for a prescribed period of time, in this case two years. We are doing that, of course, to make sure that our agencies have certainty about the information that they need to access in pursuit of both national security investigations and also other criminal matters such as rapes, murders and child online exploitation. This metadata is an absolutely vital part of the investigative methodology that law enforcement, both federal and state, is required to use.

In this budget we are spending $152 million to strengthen border security against terrorism, crime and other threats, which comprises an $88.5 million rollout of the latest biometric identification eGate technology so that our border officers can rapidly identify departing extremists and returning foreign fighters. We are also spending over $50 million to equip the Australian Border Force officers and give them the specialist training they need to do their job. There is $13 million to improve risk assessment capabilities and develop options to enable the rapid biometric identification of suspect travellers. This additional funding builds on the $630 million that we announced last August, which is already making a significant difference to our counter-terrorism capability, and there is a further $96 million for deployable secure communications and protective security arrangements, some of which, of course, is applicable to Parliament House.

In addition to these CT capability enhancements, the parliament has, as I have said, passed four tranches of legislation that modernises the tools that are available to our agencies to deal with this threat and the way this threat has evolved. This threat is new and we need to respond appropriately. This government is making sure that our agencies can do that.

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