Don Randall (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Would the minister update the House on recent progress in countering terrorism in the region? Is the minister aware of plans to downgrade these efforts? What would be the consequences?

Alexander Downer (Mayo, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for Canning for his question. I know that he is concerned about the issue of terrorism. I am delighted to tell the House that the Indonesian authorities captured the Jemaah Islamiah leader Abu Dujana and others over the weekend. It is a great achievement by the Indonesian authorities. I think they are doing an outstanding job in combating terrorism. They deserve to be congratulated on their success, their energy and their hard work. In a country which suffered from 88 deaths in the Bali bombing, and whose embassy has subsequently been attacked by terrorists, they deserve to be properly acknowledged. We work very closely with the Indonesian authorities in the area of counterterrorism. The Australian Federal Police, our diplomats and our intelligence agencies have a very good relationship with them and this is, I know, very much appreciated by the Indonesians. In March the Indonesian police seized a significant cache of Jemaah Islamiah weapons and explosives from a house in Jogjakarta. They then detained a number of suspects. The Indonesians have successfully prosecuted over 180 individuals for terrorism related offences. The partnerships Australia has developed with countries like Indonesia, in particular, and the Philippines in the area of counterterrorism are proving to be very successful.

There is another approach. There is the Labor Party approach—they say they would continue the fight against terrorism. There is no question about their being opposed to terrorism, and no doubt they would use the Liberal multilateralist model to do so. I noticed on 4 May a press release from the Opposition spokesman on foreign affairs. He said that the international crisis group report into Jemaah Islamiah demonstrated ‘a pressing need for Australia to refocus our security resources in our region’—as if we were not focusing enormous resources in our region. That same opposition, though, pledged through its finance spokesman to cut resources to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, resources that help fight terrorism and help provide consular assistance to Australians. So we have the Leader of the Opposition, when he was the opposition spokesman, saying that the government does not do enough in the area of counterterrorism, but in a press release issued on 2 March we have the opposition spokesman on finance saying that he had a whole list of cuts that Labor would make.

It is worth while for people to look at these cuts because one of the cuts was to wind back, by $31.3 million, budget increases in 2006-07 that were provided to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The bulk of that money is being spent on improved efforts by DFAT in the area of counterterrorism and a stronger consular and crisis response. So Labor say, ‘We’re going to be liberal multilateralists,’ and presumably contracting this sort of work out now to the United Nations so that they can save the money that we put into bilateral efforts through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

This government has fought terrorism, and fought it hard. We have shown a great determination to confront terrorism. In South-East Asia in particular, in our immediate neighbourhood, which the Labor Party says is our priority—of course our neighbourhood is our priority—we are seeing very successful results, including from the investment of the Australian government. What Labor wants to do is to cut funding to that area, reduce those resources and contract out counterterrorism to liberal multilateralism. Mr Speaker, I ask you!