Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

The reasons given by the member for Cowan as to why this was not effective or impactful legislation are—again, in her words—that the people we are trying control have a 'migratory nature' and:

… they will go from one theatre of war to the next theatre of war

The fact they are migratory is the point of this legislation. This government has, as its first priority, the protection of the Australian people. The one place, as an absolute priority, where we will invest every effort and every resource to prevent migratory extremists turning it into a theatre of war is Australia. That is why this legislation is necessary.

Compare those words—that is, that it is not effective or impactful legislation—to this submission from our agencies:

Australia's previous experiences with Australians returning from conflict zones demonstrates the threat they can pose. Of the 30 Australians who fought or trained with extremist groups in conflict zones between 1990 and 2010, including Pakistan and Afghanistan, 25 returned; of those, eight were convicted of terrorism-related offences …

The Commonwealth's Counter-Terrorism Coordinator put it very simply when she said:

… the risk is that they could come back into Australia and conduct a terrorist attack on our soil and kill or injure Australians.

This is some of the most impactful, effective and critically necessary legislation this parliament will see in this term. The description of it from the member for Cowan elucidates precisely what they think over there on that side.

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