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

I give my condolences to the families and friends of those who were killed in the attacks in Paris, Beirut, Egypt and Mali and in all the other places where, over the last two years, the evil of terrorism has shown its ugly face. I commend the member for Sydney for her speech, because she is correct in the fact that it will only be courage which will defeat this evil ideology, which is destroying innocent lives across world as we debate this motion.

It is not just something that we have seen in the last couple of years. Sadly, since 2001 attacks in New York, Bali, London, Madrid, Mumbai and Paris have shaped our world. Sadly, we have seen innocent Australians die. Fortunately, fatal attacks in our own country have been few. Tragically, though, this is no comfort to the families of Curtis Cheng, Katrina Dawson and Tori Johnson. They have seen the full brunt of terrorism here in Australia and have had to deal with the consequences.

There are only two things that will protect us and serve us in this fight—an unwavering commitment to our values and a resolve to destroy terrorism at its heart. Australian values are the best means to keep the hatred that organisations like ISIS, al-Qaeda and Boko Haram are spreading from affecting our citizens. Our values of tolerance, pluralism and individual liberty show in us a determination to fight for the freedoms that many around the world fight to secure for themselves.

We cannot forget that nearly one quarter of Australians were born overseas and have come here because of our values and freedoms. They are what make our country great. Being Australian brings rights but also, just as importantly, responsibilities. We must ensure that we all are united in defending our values and freedoms. After the tragic events in Paris, in the strongest language we have heard from any leader, President Francois Hollande announced to his people that France was at war. He showed that not only would it be French values that would defeat this evil threat but also it would be a collective will around the world to do so. He stated that the republic would not be destroyed by terrorism; terrorism would be destroyed by France.

This government has shown that it too has the collective will to ensure that we are playing our part in trying to destroy Daesh or ISIS. The government has committed the second-largest military contribution in Syria and Iraq to deal with this threat. We have supported our ally, the United States, and the many other countries which have joined forces to defeat this evil organisation. At home, we have also given our intelligence agencies and police forces the tools to do their job in an increasingly dangerous and fast-paced environment. Provisions for foreign fighters, special intelligence operations, data retention and citizenship have all been balanced by reviews which have also been seen to protect our values. Over 120 recommendations have taken into account the views of experts in making sure that we have not only put in place laws to keep us safe but also put in place laws to keep our values safe.

In dealing with the heart of these attacks, we must also continue to show a resolve to deal with them. As the member for Sydney illustrated, we must draw on the courage which has been shown where terrorism has raised its ugly head and use that to make sure that we destroy it at its core. This is the only means by which we can prevent organisations such as Daesh from promoting, provoking, funding or resourcing further attacks.

As President Hollande said, we must combine our forces to achieve a result that is already too late in coming. If we are to defeat ISIS then the West and its allies will have to ensure that they have the collective will to do so. Striking at them to degrade and destroy their capabilities is the only way to ensure they cannot continue to attack us at home. If they are allowed to continue to have a territory where they can act to seek to attack us then we are in danger. But they are operating within an incredibly complex theatre, and we must understand the complexity of the situation. It has been described to me—and it is the best description I have heard—that what we are dealing with is a strategic area which has the complexity of playing a three-dimensional game of chess. If we are to play this game successfully, and ultimately win, it will involve coordinating political, military, diplomatic and covert force strategically.

David Kilcullen is a global expert in military strategy and counter-insurgency. He is the only Australian to have advised the US Secretary of State and the US State Department on counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency. He says western countries have a clear interest in destroying ISIS, and the goal should be to utterly annihilate ISIS as a state. He is one the few people who has had experience in combating al-Qaeda. With others, he put forward a clear strategy for combating al-Qaeda and he has now put forward a clear strategy for combating Islamic State. He has outlined that organisations such as Daesh use an aggregation of grievances to tap into the unrest of citizens in other countries to recruit them, manipulate them and get them to believe that the answer to their problems is jihad.

Ultimately, the only way to destroy this network is to destroy Islamic State at its core. But, without political will, we will be constrained in how much we can do. We have to continue to play a part in doing this. We must ensure that parliaments around the world are also encouraged to have the political will to do what much be done to defeat ISIS. Political will is one thing, but a diplomatic effort is the next. President Hollande has shown that there is a clear intent in Europe and other parts of the world to make sure there is a political solution to enable us to deal with ISIS on the ground, and we must do what we can to help and support France in putting that solution together. We know it is complex; we have seen that recently with the shooting down of a Russian aircraft. But what that should do is once again strengthen our resolve to make sure we can get a clear strategy in place. We must make sure that we can get the United Nations Security Council acting as one against the situation that is currently evolving on the ground in Iraq in Syria. We must ensure that we can get a unity of purpose to dealing with the complexity of the situation. If we do not, the suffering that we are seeing, especially in Syria and Iraq, is going to continue—and it is suffering the like of which we have not seen since the end of the Second World War. There have been well over 200,000 lives lost in Syria. Millions of people are assembled on the border seeking shelter, food and personal security. There is a complex web of nations surrounding Iraq and Syria looking after their own national interests but also needing to combine to ensure that we can defeat this global problem which continues to touch all nations not only around Iraq in Syria but elsewhere across the globe.

It is only if we can overcome these strategic hurdles that we will make greater headway. That is why it is important that Australia continues to play its part in calling on the global community to have the political will to achieve a political solution to the complex strategic environment in Iraq and Syria and act to defeat Daesh. As leader of the free world, President Obama faces a legacy test like no other in trying to bring all this together. While we all must admit that out missteps have contributed to the situation, we must use the renewed global resolve that has come from Paris to forge an outcome. If the moment is not seized, the will to act will drain away and the world will be less secure as a result. We now have a chance to implement a political solution that will allow us to take action against ISIS, and only by doing this can we prevent further suffering.

My hope is that we will see countries of the free world unite behind President Hollande in his mission to put together the solution we need to combat ISIS. That will make our jobs easier, here, in keeping our nation safe which, as we know, is the greatest priority that any government should have. We have superb intelligence agencies. We have a superb police force. We have a superb community engagement in trying to keep our nation safe. But we need to also make sure that we are doing everything we can abroad to keep our nation safe. That is why we need the political fix when it comes to dealing with Daesh on the ground.

In the last two years Australia's security-threat level has been at high. We must be doing everything we can to reduce this. We must be doing everything we can to make sure our citizens are safe. This will continue to be difficult. Currently before parliament is a new bill seeking to place control orders on teenagers as young as 14. When I came into this parliament, five years ago, the idea that we would need to be placing control orders on 14-year-olds is something we all would have been aghast at. But that is the reality we are dealing with. We are dealing with an evil that knows no bounds, and we must show we have a political will that has no bounds to defeat it.

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