John Alexander (Bennelong, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Justice and the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister on Counter-Terrorism. Will the minister advise the House of the steps the government is taking to effectively combat the insidious threat of terrorism and protect Australians? What challenges does the government face?

Michael Keenan (Stirling, Liberal Party, Minister for Justice) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member the Bennelong for that question. He is one of the members on this side of the House who will never waver in their determination to protect the security of the Australian people.

When we came to office we found that our law enforcement and security agencies were under-resourced and pleading with us for the legislative changes they needed to do their jobs. In response, we have boosted counterterrorism funding for our law enforcement, intelligence and security agencies by over $1.3 billion, including $6 million provided by the Treasurer in the most recent budget. We have secured passage of four tranches of legislation to strengthen our agencies' ability to investigate, monitor, arrest and prosecute home-grown violent extremists and returning foreign fighters.

This morning we had the shadow Attorney-General out there, claiming that the former Rudd-Gillard-Rudd governments have a similarly impressive record on national security. But we know that you can never believe what they say; you need to look at what they did to set the record straight.

Pat Conroy (Charlton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Where's the bill?

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Charlton is warned!

Michael Keenan (Stirling, Liberal Party, Minister for Justice) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The reality is that when they were in government they systematically degraded Australia's law enforcement and intelligence capabilities. They reduced resourcing to our law enforcement and intelligence agencies, they cut their staff and they reduced vital screening at our borders. In fact, when the Howard government left office in 2007, counterterrorism funding was $790 million. When we came to office in 2013 it was $523 million—

Mr Bowen interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for McMahon is warned!

Michael Keenan (Stirling, Liberal Party, Minister for Justice) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

a reduction of one-third during the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd years.

They also stripped $125 million from ASIO to fund measures unrelated to its core business. ASIO was also forced to absorb $57 million in costs for new activities. They cut $128 million from the Australian Federal Police, cut almost 1,000 members of staff from the Customs and Border Protection Service and they cut the budget and personnel of the Australian Crime Commission, Australia's most powerful law enforcement agency, by one-third whilst they were in office.

Labor also deprived our security agencies of the vital legislative reform that they needed to do their job. Despite the growing terror threats, the member for Isaacs, as Attorney-General, did not pass one national security law in his tenure. This is despite the fact that we had agencies pleading for legislative reform, including publicly to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security on data retention, when ASIO, the AFP and the ACC joined together to say that if data retention did not proceed every security, intelligence and serious crime investigation undertaken by them would be affected.

We take national security seriously on this side of the House. The Labor government for six years never did!