Jason Wood (La Trobe, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I strongly support the Australian Citizenship Amendment (Allegiance to Australia) Bill 2015. For those who do not know, the electorate of La Trobe is in Victoria, in the outer eastern suburbs. We cover the Dandenong Ranges, a beautiful part of the world, and in the south we are very fortunate to have suburbs such as Berwick, Beaconsfield, Narre Warren and Narre Warren South. There is a very large multicultural community in the south of my electorate, particularly in the suburbs of Narre Warren and Narre Warren South.

Sadly, in La Trobe, and surprisingly, we are not immune to the threat of terrorism. We have had arrests in our suburbs, which I will go into a bit more later on. Just up the road, in Endeavour Hills, we had the tragic situation where two police members were stabbed during a terrorist attack. At the same time I acknowledge that, when it comes to legislation such as this, we need to consult widely with all of our multicultural community. I have worked very closely with the Afghan community, in particular, and they have been exceptionally supportive of the government taking action when it comes to the threat of terrorism. Those who escaped Afghanistan to get away from the Taliban, to get away from terrorism, have said to me that the last thing they want to see is anything like this happen in Australia.

Even parents have said to me, at one of my multicultural functions, that they were very concerned that their sons, in particular, were potentially going down the path of getting involved in violent extremism. They were asking for help. This is something which we took on board and we have worked with Dr Anne Aly from Curtin University. We ran the first full myHack program in Victoria, which is a hack-a-thon, where the participants were predominantly Muslim. They are so passionate about protecting Australia and they are so passionate about stopping young people, whether of Muslim or any other religion, from going down the path of extremism, including those who get involved in white supremacy. This was a way that the Muslim community, young people, in my electorate, came up with ideas to prevent other young people going down the wrong path.

I very much look forward to the winning proposal, which is called 'the formers', which is a website where former extremists and also former victims put up their stories to encourage others, when it comes to extremism, to not go down their path. Victims are able to show other people what it is like to be a victim of terrorism, hate or bigotry—any of those sorts of issues.

This bill concerns something that all members of parliament are very passionate about—citizenship. Australian citizenship is something that must not be taken lightly—with it, come great rights and responsibilities. Some of those rights include the right to vote in free, democratic elections and being able to freely discuss political matters. With rights, come responsibilities and duties owed to being an Australian. Citizenship is a pledge to do many things. Our pledge to citizenship reads—and these get read all over the country each week to new citizens:

From this time forward, I pledge my loyalty to Australia and its peoples, whose democratic beliefs I share, whose rights and liberties I respect and whose laws I will uphold and obey.

It does not say, 'Don't respect your previous heritage.' It just says: respect and acknowledge that you are now, jointly, an Australian citizen. Obviously this pledge means that you should not get involved in terrorism activities against Australia or its allies.

As far as I am concerned, those who decide that they no longer want to uphold their right and responsibility of having Australian citizenship, have no right at all to be an Australian citizen. They do not respect the laws and liberties of Australia, nor, it would seem, do they want to abide by, obey or uphold them.

The purpose of this bill is to ensure that those who take up arms against Australia, or those who support it through other financial means who are dual citizens, are stripped of their Australian citizenship and deported. Since the election of the Liberal government, we have heard and seen and read about various Australians heading over to conflicts in Syria and Iraq to take up arms in the death cult, Islamic State or Daesh. They know what they are doing. They have seen the videos. They have decided that this is the path that they want to pursue. At the moment, I believe there are 110 Australians fighting or engaging with terrorist groups in Syria and Iraqi.

Not only have we seen Australians leave to fight overseas, we have had to deal with acts of terrorism on our own borders. Headlines across the nation have shown faces and names of those who have decided to leave Australia to fight. This list is quite extensive. The majority have come from either Victoria or New South Wales. There has been, as I mentioned before, a number of incidents around my electorate and also in the electorate of Holt. I will not go into the details of certain incidents, because they are subject to court cases, but, sadly, I have to say that we have been the focus of terrorist-related activity.

Since 11 September 2001, we have always feared the real threat of terrorism within our community. We saw attacks in London and Madrid. But as the years went on it seemed that many Australians believed we were immune. My background was with the Victoria Police Counter Terrorism Unit, so I knew we were not immune and that it was just going to be a matter of time.

Then came 2014. We saw one of the first attempted attacks on our shores, as I mentioned, at the Endeavour Hills police station. No longer are the police regarded as the protectors; they are now, tragically, the targets, as are those who wear the military uniforms protecting Australia overseas. As a result of this, Victoria Police—and my background is in the Victoria Police—have a policy of not wearing uniforms whilst not on duty, always carrying a firearm, always wearing protective vests and patrolling in pairs or groups of three. The reason for this is that the terrorist threat is very real. In fact, it has been publicly stated that in Australia there are 400 persons of interest who authorities are watching.

I also read today that finally the state Labor government has upgraded security measures at the Endeavour Hills police station and the Narre Warren police station. These police stations look after the residents in my electorate and also those in Holt.

Then we had, on 15 December, the very tragic incident in the Lindt cafe in Sydney, in Martin Place. For those involved, the hostages, that is something they will never forget.

Very sadly, on 2 October this year, we saw the death of Curtis Cheng outside the Parramatta police station. He was what those working for Victoria Police call an unsworn person. Curtis was just going about his work. He had finished off for the day. Tragically, his life was taken. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends. I am very well aware of the dangers the police men and women face. Every day now is a testing day for them.

One of the best ways to deal with offenders is to remove them from society. This is one of the aims of this bill: to remove and prevent the re-entry into Australia of those who wish to commit acts of terrorism, who have taken up arms against Australia and who are dual citizens. If they are travelling over to Syria or Iraq and taking up the cause with Daesh, do we really want these people coming back to Australia? They are now fully trained up to conduct terrorist related activities. They should not come back here.

These people are doing whatever they can to undermine the rights and freedoms of Australians. They are actively working to do harm to those who live in Australia and Australians abroad, and they also pose a threat to almost every aspect of our lives and community. Those who are at war with Australia are not armies of other nations but terrorist organisations. The bill ensures that those who do these things and who are dual citizens do not come back. This is one of the best ways of keeping Australia safe. If we can keep out of Australia those who are willing to take radical action, we are keeping our country safe.

The offences which must be committed before a person loses their dual citizenship are being involved in a terrorist act, training with terrorists, direct activities with terrorists, recruiting for terrorist organisations, financing terrorism or financing terrorists. Obviously, they are very significant offences. Almost all of these Commonwealth offences carry a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. Should these convicted criminals who are dual citizens ever be released from jail, they will be deported, meaning that they will never see another day in Australian society.

Also, it should be noted that these offences will be retrospective. These are recommendations. The amendment bill applies to dual citizens who have already been convicted of a specified offence with a sentence of 10 years or more handed down within the last 10 years. This is important to capture those people already convicted of very serious terrorism offences who have clearly repudiated their allegiance to Australia.

One of the big concerns I am hearing from law enforcement is about correctional facilities. I know that in Barwon Prison in Victoria there are a number of terrorists or people who have been involved in terrorist related activity who are now using their time in jail to recruit other people to their cause. Also, I am hearing great concerns that they are being patched over to an outlaw motorcycle gang, which greatly concerns me.

Once these people who have been involved in terrorism and are dual citizens have been released, as far as I am concerned—and this legislation will ensure that—after serving time in prison, they can no longer stay in Australia. It is very hard to have a person who has gone to prison undertake deradicalisation programs. I understand that there will be attempts in New South Wales next year, and I congratulate those efforts. Some people, though, are too far gone. But hopefully at least they can stop others being converted.

This bill aims to protect Australians from those who decide to leave to fight against Australia or those who attempt to, or conduct, acts of terrorism in our own country, as I mentioned before. This government, including the former Prime Minister of Australia, Tony Abbott, and I know the new Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, have been very focused on protecting Australians. I understand that we always strive to get bipartisan support. The first priority of any government is to protect its citizens. That is what we want to do. That is what the public want us to do. We need to ensure, obviously, that when we have terrorism laws we bring the community with us so they understand this. Can I say that the feeling on the streets when people have seen all these awful terrorist attacks, in particular against police, is that they know too well that there is a need. This also sends a very clear message to those who are thinking of travelling overseas and getting involved in terrorist related activity that, if you do, you will not be welcome back.

I congratulate the government for putting this bill up and thank the opposition for its support. Sadly, some of the opposition members have had to come kicking and screaming, as we have heard before. I know that the member for Melbourne Ports is not one of those members. I commend the bill to the House.

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