Fiona Martin (Reid, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support the Charter of the United Nations Amendment Bill 2021. In two weeks we will mark 20 years since the September 11 attacks. For anyone who witnessed those scenes 20 years ago, the images of the towers falling, the sheer unbelievability of it, the numbness it evoked—I remember many people at the time thinking it was a scene from a movie playing on their TV. And, although 20 years have passed, the memory of those attacks has not dimmed in our consciousness; those images remain within us.

Days after those attacks, the UN Security Council adopted resolution 1373 in response. Resolution 1373 further built upon the International Convention on the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism and council resolution 1267. It requires Australia, as a UN member state, to suppress terrorism by implementing targeted financial sanctions in relation to persons involved in terrorist activities. Under Australian law, the foreign minister can designate a person or entity who commits, attempts to commit, participates or facilitates the commission of terrorist attacks. This is an important national security measure because, as has been noted by the UN Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive, the reality is that terrorism financing is a global phenomenon which not only threatens member states' security but also undermines economic development and financial market stability. It is therefore of paramount importance to stem the flow of funds to terrorists.

You only have to look at the individuals and organisations Australia has imposed sanctions on to understand why this bill we are debating today matters. To date, Australia has implemented sanctions against members of al-Qaeda, financiers of al-Qaeda, members of the al-Nuresh Front and individuals and entities who were part of the illegal annexation of Crimea, just to name a few. There are over 6,900 individuals and entities on Australia's consolidated list that are subject to targeted financial sanctions. Australia has a strong track record when it comes to combating the financing of terrorism, including hosting the 'No Money for Terror' Ministerial Conference on Counter-Terrorism Financing in 2019. This conference included 65 delegations. This included 23 ministers; representatives from 15 international bodies, including the United Nations, the Financial Action Task Force and Financial Action Task Force style regional bodies; and representatives from 28 private sector and not-for-profit organisations. The 2019 conference assessed the evolving global and Indo-Pacific threat environments. Consistent with UN Security Council resolution 2462 in 2019 and the global standards set by the Financial Action Task Force, participants agreed to promote international and regional cooperation and improve capacity to combat the financing of terrorism.

We know that the task ahead for Australia and other countries when it comes to freezing assets and stopping the flow of finance to terrorist organisations will only become more difficult—especially given the increasing use of digital and cryptocurrencies, which, when coupled with other anonymising technologies and use of the dark web, provide new channels through which terrorist financiers can hide their financial dealings. That's just another reason why the surveillance legislation amendment bill the House was debating last week was so important.

The bill before us now is a relatively simple legislative change but a vitally important one to provide certainty around the enforceability of counterterrorism listings. Successive governments since 2001 have treated counterterrorism listings made under part 4 of the Charter of the United Nations Act as administrative rather than legislative in character. This means that CT listings were made via Gazette notice rather than being registered as legislative instruments on the Federal Register of Legislation. This bill acts on updated advice to government, which recommended registering the listings as instruments on the federal register to reduce the risk of successful legal challenge relating to their enforceability. In line with this advice, all current CT listings which were originally gazetted were registered on the FRL on 26 May 2021. Despite the registration, the legislative change is still required to put beyond doubt the validity of any past enforcement of historical listings.

This bill has been introduced out of an abundance of caution to put beyond doubt the enforceability of these listings before they were registered on the federal register. But, Mr Deputy Speaker, you only have to look at the entities and organisations on the counterterrorism listing to understand why you would rather have an abundance of caution than let any one of these try to test a potential legal loophole. Thank you. I commend the bill to the House.

See this speech in context