Jason Wood (La Trobe, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Customs, Community Safety and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

First of all, when it comes to service to the police force, wherever you've served, especially as a police officer and a detective, you have actually been on the front line. You have seen the worst of society. In a time of need when a victim needs you, you are there to support them. You are there to hold their hand. You are there to guide them through the courts. You are there to protect them from bad people. It's as simple as that.

When it comes to the home affairs minister, he was the minister who established the home affairs department in December 2017. Being part of that department and seeing the Australian Border Force work so effectively, it is a great credit to the home affairs minister for everything he has done for this country. When it comes to pushing through laws on cybersecurity and making Australia a much safer place, he's the one who's been leading the charge on this.

When it comes to community safety programs, as I've said before, the home affairs minister and all coalition members take the safety of Australians seriously. That's something we'll always do. When it comes to organisations the home affairs minister has approved, the Royal Flying Doctor Service, men's sheds, the Scouts association—and I can say what's so important about the Scouts Association, and I've seen this firsthand. It's the early intervention to make sure young people don't go down the wrong path. This government is very proud of ensuring young people don't go down the wrong path. There's also the Salvation Army trust, St Vincent de Paul and numerous multicultural communities. After we had the awful terrorist attacks in Christchurch, our Prime Minister directed that the Safer Communities Fund needed to support those who could potentially be targeted by faith based extremists.

The Safer Communities Fund provides funding to address crime and antisocial behaviour and, as I said, even goes to the extent of making places of worship much safer places to be. When it comes to grants, I'm very surprised the member for Shortland raised this matter of public importance. I thought he would have been congratulating the coalition on this program because you've been awarded, for example—I notice the member for Macnamara has left the chamber; I don't blame him. I think he's received over 20 safer communities grants.

Opposition members interjecting—

He has; his community has. I will also make this point: his community deserves them. Whether it be a Jewish or an Islamic community, they've been the highest beneficiaries of these grants, especially after the awful attacks in Christchurch, and deservedly so.

Can I mention the member for Spence? He funded six closed-circuit TV cameras and monitors to provide safety for staff and young people at the Salvation Army youth homeless shelter in Salisbury Downs, a very worthy project. The member for Ballarat funded installation of four fixed or mobile CCTV cameras and 10 security lights to boost the efforts of local councils and community organisations to address street crime and antisocial behaviour, again a very worthwhile project. Here in Canberra, we funded the installation of 21 closed-circuit TV cameras and 12 security lights to address incidents of vandalism, antisocial behaviour and anti-Semitic incidents at the Northern Canberra Synagogue and Jewish Community Centre. In Victoria, the member for McEwen's electorate received funding for five wide-angle cameras and two narrow-angle cameras to enhance community safety, improve security and reduce street crime and violence. The member for Moreton's electorate received funding for a grant around Annerley Baptist Church to increase community resilience and wellbeing by addressing crime, antisocial behaviour and other security risks.

I had the great pleasure, with the member for Calwell, of personally going to the Buddhist temple in her electorate, where we heard firsthand the concerns and fear of the Buddhist monks living on site, how they were concerned for their safety and how the congregation was in fear of the Buddhist monks being attacked at night, because they sleep over there. It is the same for the member for Bruce, in whose electorate is the Victorian Tamil Association of Dandenong. He also supplied a letter of support—and I congratulate him for that—for the St Thomas Syro-Malabar Catholic Church. Again, that had been the target of numerous cases of vandalism. Also in the member for Bruce's electorate, I had the great privilege of going to the Victorian Tamil Association and meeting the President there, Param, who received a government grant from the Safer Communities Fund to make the place a safer place for those who worship there.

Again, when it comes to the member for Isaacs, St Thomas Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, with Father Fredy—and I've visited there personally—was in desperate need of funding because of the sheer weight of vandalism occurring at that place of worship. Then we have the member for Lalor, with the SMVS Hindu temple. This temple has been firebombed three times. I was invited out there by the local Hindu community to visit the temple and see firsthand what is going on there. The good people of Lalor who go to this Hindu temple were living in fear of what could happen next. I'm very proud that the coalition government awarded funding to this community.

Then we have the Islamic Museum of Australia, in Thornbury. Again, I visited that. That is in Cooper, a Labor-held seat. When I met Mariam and the others who took me around—sadly, this was not long after the awful terrorist attack in New Zealand—their community was very concerned about what was occurring, and school visits had been cancelled. I'm very proud to say, again, that the coalition government awarded funding to the Islamic Museum of Australia.

Then we have the Newport mosque in the seat of Gellibrand, another seat in the west of Melbourne. In my role as assistant minister for multicultural affairs, I visited the Newport mosque, which I believe is the largest mosque in the Southern Hemisphere. Sadly, people—especially young people—were not turning up to go to the mosque, because of fear of potential attacks. I congratulate them: they made the mosque open to the wider community to see how their place of worship operates. Sadly, that ended up being to their detriment and they needed to install security fences and cameras.

Since 2016, the coalition government has committed $180 million to local councils, places of worship and not-for-profit organisations to address, in particular, youth at risk, and I couldn't be prouder of what our home affairs minister has achieved in this portfolio to make Australia safer. On this side, we always put our national security first.

Mr Conroy interjecting—

Giving coalition members a lecture about what it is like being a police officer and a detective—I don't think the member for Shortland would know one if he fell over one—is absolutely disgraceful. I served 18 years in the Victorian police force. It is disgraceful to question me or to question the home affairs minister, who always puts community safety first. You should be ashamed of yourself.

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