Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Canning for his question and I acknowledge his deep and abiding interest in national security and the safety of all Australians either at home or abroad. The threat of terrorism continues to challenge us. We were reminded of the mindless hatred of violent extremism again last week when we saw the images of the son of Australian Khaled Sharrouf posing before the crucified body of yet another victim of ISIS. The terror threat continues to evolve and our focus on countering it remains our priority.

In Iraq, Australian service men and women are supporting the Iraqi security forces in their efforts to liberate Mosul, the ISIS headquarters in Iraq, and that work is progressing and progressing well. We are also determined, along with the 68-member coalition to counter ISIS, to take back Mosul—the self-described caliphate—from ISIS so that it can no longer be an inspiration to violent extremists and terrorists around the world. Recently, the Prime Minister was in Iraq and he confirmed that Australia would provide an additional $110 million to the Iraqi government for humanitarian and stabilisation efforts. It is essential that Iraq is able to retain control of its borders and we are working with Iraq to ensure that.

At home, we are preventing Australian citizens from travelling to Syria and Iraq to become experienced foreign terrorist fighters, and to date 205 Australian passports of those who were seeking to travel to Iraq and Syria have been cancelled. In addition, 200 Australian citizens are currently under investigation for providing support or assistance to ISIS in Syria and Iraq. I can confirm that from 1 July there will be a Global Watch Office within the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. This will ensure that we have strength and capacity to monitor and respond to overseas events as they emerge. There will be real-time information provided to Australians on a 24/7 basis—twenty four hours a day, seven days a week—to ensure that those Australian citizens who are affected by a crisis receive information and support as the crisis occurs. In that way, we are doing what we can to keep Australians safe when as they are involved, tragically, in events that occur overseas. This government is increasing resources to our security, intelligence and law enforcement agencies, and can be trusted to do all it can to keep Australians safe.

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