Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

We, of course, take the same advice from the same security agencies, even the same security personnel, as the former government did. We have confidence in our security and law enforcement agencies to do their job. One of the things they do is do it on an ongoing basis.

We don't discuss all of the methods that our agencies use to determine if someone is a national security risk, for obvious reasons. We encourage the director-general of ASIO to directly engage so as to depoliticise these issues. That's why the director-general of ASIO goes onto TV—not because it's something that is in his wish list of wanting to tick off but because it's the right thing to do because it is consistent with his view about the need to lower the temperature in this country.

If those opposite think that the circumstances are that we don't need to lower the temperature then they can continue down this cul-de-sac, but I've got to say that we want to ensure the security of our nation is prioritised—not a news grab, not a headline, the security of our nation.

We've seen the form in this before: the criticism of Malcolm Fraser for making what was called a mistake in bringing Lebanese refugees to Australia in response to the 1976 Lebanese Civil War, the claim that Victorians were scared to go out due to African gang violence and incorrectly blaming the death of a teenager on such gangs in a bid to score a point, the cruel war against the Biloela family and comparing their children to anchor babies, the catching of a senior member of the then government on a hot mic making jokes about Pacific nations facing rising sea levels. There were the comments during the last election suggesting that the now defence minister was the choice of China.

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