Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Home Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question. I really recognise the work that he does in protecting our country through his membership of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, and I recognise the work of members on both sides of the aisle who are on the intelligence committee, who really do a great job.

There is nothing more important to our country than our sovereignty and protecting our values and standing up for our beliefs. When you look at what the Australian Federal Police and the Victorian police have been able to do over the last 24 hours in disrupting what was potentially a catastrophic event, that is a great credit to them. It's not the first time in recent history that the AFP have been able to disrupt an alleged terrorist plot.

We are still under threat. We've of course gone through a very unusual period, and we're still in it, in relation to the virus, but that doesn't mean that terrorists have gone away. It doesn't mean that the threat is not present. It doesn't mean that because people aren't travelling overseas or people aren't coming here there is not a threat in our country. People are being radicalised online. People are spending more time online, in particular young individuals, impressionable young minds. And we are very concerned about that threat. So when ASIO steps up and protects our country and our sovereignty and our values in relation to these matters of terrorism, we give them a great deal of credit.

There's another side of ASIO's work and that is to make sure that they can counter the foreign interference that is present in this country. It has been for decades and will be whilst ever there are people that want to gather intelligence—understand what we're doing in relation to protecting and defending our country—national security secrets, and all of that which goes into protecting our assets, both here and internationally—our people, the efforts of the Defence Force et cetera. The director-general, in a speech last night, has obviously provided some detail to the public about concerns that he's had for a long period of time and action that has been taken.

I'm proud to say that we have invested more money into ASIO over the course of the last 12 months and indeed over the period of this government than any time in its seven-decade history. ASIO has a 70-year history in this country. We should all be incredibly proud of the work that they do, much of which is not publicly disclosed, but of course, over the course of the last day, we have been able to recognise the work of those members of the Counter Foreign Interference Taskforce. The task force has already investigated over 30 cases, and the approaches and the actions that are alleged in relation to some of the individuals that have been identified by that task force remain incredibly concerning. The threat is still ever-present, and this government will do whatever it takes to keep Australians safe.

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