Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister update the House on action the government is taking to strengthen our national security?

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Hume for his question. As the Leader of the Opposition and I have just noted, we have seen another serious terrorist atrocity in the last 24 hours in Tunisia. This latest atrocity is a sign of just how many people right around the world are susceptible to the deadly lure of Islamist extremism. We are not immune to this dreadful contagion—this modern-day scourge—even here in peaceful, pacific, socially-cohesive Australia.

As members of this House now know well, there are some 100 Australians who are currently fighting in the Middle East with the ISIL or Daesh death cult. There are some 140 people here in Australia who are supporting them with financing and recruitment. Some 100 Australians have had their passports cancelled to prevent them travelling to the Middle East. Of great concern, ASIO now has some 400 high-priority counter-terrorism investigations on foot. This is double the number of just 12 months ago. In response, this government has invested some $630 million more in our police and security agencies. We have also strengthened our counter-terrorist legislation in a whole host of ways. There are more powers for our security agencies, and there are new offences to deal with terrorists and potential terrorists.

Shortly before question time this parliament passed the data retention legislation. This is a very important piece of legislation, because the Australian Federal Police advise that some 90 per cent of counter-terrorism investigations involve the use of metadata as, coincidentally, do some 90 per cent of child abuse investigations. I want to thank the chairman of the joint standing committee on intelligence and security the member for Wannon; the deputy chairman; and the ministers and shadow ministers involved in the cooperation that achieved this legislation. But we cannot stop there. We must always be acting to keep our country safe.

Today the Minister for Justice introduced legislation to provide for a mandatory five-year sentence for trafficking in illegal firearms. There are some 10,000 illegal handguns in our country and some quarter of a million illegal longarms in our country. They must be kept out of the wrong hands. This is important legislation. I do hope we can have the same level of constructive cooperation from the opposition on this as on other counter-terrorist and security legislation.