Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration and Border Protection) Share this | Hansard source

Let me go to Bret Walker's report and what he said in his report. If I go to page 57, Bret Walker SC says:

Taking into account Australia's international obligations, and the national security and counter-terrorism risks posed by Australians engaging in acts prejudicial to Australia's security, the INSLM supports the introduction of a power for the Minister for Immigration to revoke the citizenship of Australians, where to do so would not render them stateless, where the Minister is satisfied that the person has engaged in acts prejudicial to Australia's security and it is not in Australia's interests for the person to remain in Australia.

That is exactly the principle by which we are guided. As the Prime Minister has said, and as all of us in this government have said repeatedly, we face an unprecedented threat from terrorism in this country. ASIO advises us that there are 400 high-priority cases under investigation right now. We have over 110 Australians who are fighting in Syria and the Middle East and about whom we are very worried that, if they came back to this country, they would seek to cause mass-casualty events here in this country. We have to deal with the reality of this threat.

I do not know why Labor is in denial when it comes to these issues of national security. The opposition leader, sitting in that chair—

Ms O'Neil interjecting—

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