Lucy Wicks (Robertson, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Justice and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Counter-Terrorism. Will the minister update the House on what this government is doing to keep our communities safe from the ongoing threat of terrorism?

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

Can I thank the member for Robertson for that question—someone who cares about things that actually matter in the real world and is representing her constituents in this place. Yesterday, as members will be aware, two 16-year-old males were arrested in Sydney by the joint counterterrorism team, in possession of combat knives. This morning they have been charged with two terrorism offences: preparing for a terrorist act and membership of a terrorist organisation. The threat posed by these individuals has been mitigated and there is no immediate or ongoing threat to the Australian public. The incident is the latest reminder of the threat that we face. It is very real and it is not going away anytime soon.

Since the national terrorism threat alert level was raised on 12 September 2014, there have been four attacks in Australia and now 11 major CT disruption operations in response to potential attack planning. Yesterday's police response was yet another example of cooperation between Commonwealth and state agencies. We have the best agencies in the world and they continue to do everything that they can to keep Australia safe. I would like to thank members of the New South Wales Joint Counter Terrorism Team, which is made up of the Australian Federal Police, ASIO, the New South Wales Police and the New South Wales Crime Commission. I thank them very much for their professionalism and for their prompt action in once again saving lives and keeping us safe.

The coalition government have and will continue to provide these teams and the agencies they represent with the legislative tools and the investment they need to combat this ongoing threat. We have passed four tranches of legislation through this parliament. There is a fifth tranche of legislation that we would like to pass soon and we have invested $1.3 billion in the ability of our agencies to address this threat. We have also delivered a strong national security agenda for Australia and will continue to explore ways that we can combat this threat to keep Australians safe.

There has been an ongoing and disturbing trend not only of more Australians but, unfortunately, increasingly younger Australians of subscribing to terrorist ideologies, and it is of great concern to the government that the two individuals arrested yesterday were both only 16. We encourage families, we encourage friends and we encourage communities who might be seeing changes with people within their midst who might be radicalising, who might be thinking about travelling to the conflict zone to contact their local authorities or to contact the National Security Hotline. We have no higher priority than keeping the Australian people safe and what we have done to ensure that has meant that our joint counterterrorism teams have had the success that they have enjoyed with these 11 disruptions.