Mal Brough (Fisher, Liberal Party, Special Minister of State) Share this | Hansard source

In speaking on this motion regarding terrorist attacks around the world I would first of all like to acknowledge and pass on my condolences to not only the people of France and those who have lost loved ones—family and friends—but also the people of Ankara, who lost over 200 of their brethren in the Russian plane that was shot down. The one thing we have all come to recognise is that terrorism knows no international boundaries. It touches lives equally no matter your language, your creed or your colour, and sadly here in Australia as well—in Parramatta, in Melbourne and in Sydney. So I think it is poignant at the start of my statement here tonight to acknowledge the pain and suffering that is so real for these individual families as they live with the horror of their lives being shattered in a moment of madness.

Back on 3 September last year I gave a speech in the Federation Chamber in which I reflected on Iraq and Syria, as we pretty much are doing today, and the circumstances around terrorism. I said then, unequivocally, that as much as we may wish that there were alternatives, the reality is that the world has no choice but to destroy ISIS and everything it stands for at its core, because, like moths attracted to a flame, people from all over the world—through social media, through the brilliance of the internet—are able to be reached, encouraged and drawn. So it does not take many people to make a massive impact on the world—sadly. I guess that is one of the things that has changed so much in recent times. Instead of conflicts being very much isolated to a region, through technology they can reach out their tentacles and reach literally anyone, anywhere, at any time. That creates challenges for the world. It creates social challenges as well as security challenges, and world leaders are dealing with this in different ways.

The terrorist attacks in Paris have been a moment in time when now we finally see the sort of language we need from world leaders. That language is considered, but you can also see that it is robust, and it is determined. Until all of us, with differing belief systems and different political systems, when the initial pain subsides, recognise that we are all equally at risk, that it is our people whom we need to protect, that we need to maintain the resolve we are now seeing from international leaders, that unless we remain resolute and that unless we continue in a single, focused manner to destroy—and I use that word very deliberately—ISIS at its heart, then this menace will continue to come back time and time again, wreaking havoc and pain and suffering on innocent people all around the world.

I and many of my colleagues who have spoken on this motion reflect upon some of the attitudes and concerns that we hear in our own electorates. People have every right to be fearful. That is what terrorism does: it strikes fear in people's hearts. That is what it is designed to do. We all remember back in the seventies when it seemed that there were hijackings all the time; it was always on the news. They was designed to make people fearful.

We as a nation can fight back as individuals by our very actions, just as the French people are doing by going to public places and not being intimidated. One of the ways in which I sense that we can lose the battle on an individual basis, in our communities, is when we isolate groups because of their religion and then persecute them as a whole. What we must persecute and prosecute are people who speak against Australia and its laws and speak for terror and tyranny. Those are the people whom we need to home in on, in a laser like fashion, with our attitudes, our comments and all our energies. We need to embrace the broader community.

I want to reflect on a sad indictment of a small number of people. It is probably best to be positive, but we need to highlight some of the underbelly that is there as well. Recently, on Facebook, I put up a photograph of an Australian female Navy captain who had won the Telstra Australian Business Woman of the Year award. You would think everyone would applaud that. But, because she was wearing her Muslim headdress in formal attire, some of the vitriol was un-Australian and downright disgraceful. Those people are dancing to the tune of the terrorists, because this brave Australian woman has fought in the battles that we have had in the Middle East on operations for Australia, for our values and for our freedoms. We still have a small minority of people who wish to denigrate this woman because of her religion. I find that behaviour not just abhorrent but dangerous because it is dancing to the tune of the terrorists.

Every time we isolate someone, we actually assist the terrorists' activities. So it behoves us all to understand our fellow citizens better, to understand the differences and to embrace the differences, but we must never, ever tolerate intolerance and the calls for anarchy, for terrorism or for anything that is un-Australian, because, after all, we all exist in this country under one law. I do not care what political persuasion a person in this place has. There are some as Far Left as the Greens, there are some on the Far Right, as some of my colleagues here are, and there is everyone in between—and I never pointed out the National Party, I say to my colleague sitting here! But all jokes aside, it is a serious issue. We have a broad range of views, but we are all as one in saying that Australia will be governed by one law for all. The distortion being put that somehow this parliament would allow people to have different laws, and using that as an excuse to denigrate a particular section of our community, again plays into the hands of the terrorists. It weakens us as a people and it does us no good.

Each and every one of us in this community can, every day, play a small role in protecting our values and protecting our society, from a security perspective, by the way in which we deal with each other, the way in which we understand each other and the way in which we tolerate those differences and embrace those differences. At the same time, we must be absolutely steadfast in maintaining our national law, a unified one law, and, at all times, treat those who would do us harm with total disdain and the full force of the law.

In my final comments here today, I want to particularly pay due respect, as the Minister for Defence Materiel and Science, to the men and women who are currently giving their all for us in this battle. People forget this. They see these images, but there is somehow a disconnect. Australia is actually at war; we have troops in harm's way. Some of those troops are the Australian Special Operations Task Group—about 80 personnel. They are providing advice and assistance to the Iraqi counter-terrorism service. You can only imagine how important that work is. We have the best in the world and they are imparting their knowledge, their expertise, their professionalism and their esprit de corps to the Iraqis. I am sure they value it, and we value the work of the Australian Special Operations Task Group. There is also the combined Australian-New Zealand Task Group, which is training the regular Iraqi army forces as part of the US-led Building Partner Capacity mission. These 300 Australian and 110 New Zealand personnel are working together, as our countries have done for over 100 years, in another part of the world but in the interests of our protection here. I say to those who keep missing the connection: if we do not take them on at their base, their light remains lit, the flame grows and, by using the internet and social media, moths are attracted to that flame, and the destruction can be very real. There are also 400 personnel in our Air Task Group operating as part of the broader coalition. They continue to strike at the heart of ISIS, Daesh or whatever you want to call them, in Iraq and Syria, taking the fight directly to the militants who wish to destroy us. The Australian Air Task Group is there, with its F18s, its multirole tanker transport and its E-7A Wedgetail airborne early warning and control aircraft. We owe a great deal of gratitude to all of the men and women of our Air Force and the personnel from the Navy and Army. Many of them will not get to do what we will do in a couple of weeks, which is to spend time with our family over Christmas. Their children may, at best, get a Skype or a video, but they will be over there doing their duty as professionals as part of the coalition, trying to make the world a safer place.

At this time, I conclude my remarks by saying to all Australians: please, spare a few moments of thought and compassion for those who do not just talk about it but have actually put their lives on the line and are leading with experience and with dedication, but also with passion to ensure that we have a safer world. If we act together, we can do it, and we can do it in our lifetime.

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