Andrew Gee (Calare, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister update the House on the steps the government has taken and continues to take to keep Australians safe and secure, including in my electorate of Calare?

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question. As the investigation into the Manchester terrorist attack continues the picture is becoming clearer as to the methods and motivations of the attack. The UK Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, has said that Monday's attack was 'more sophisticated than some we've seen before' and that 'it seems likely that the terrorist wasn't doing this on his own'. As honourable members know, there have now been six arrests. The authorities there have taken strong measures in the light of the real risk that there is a network and a broader and wider conspiracy. I want to say again that we are all united in this House, in this nation, in conveying to the people of Britain our solidarity and our love and our prayers for the people of Manchester and particularly the victims and the families of victims, so many of them so young. This morning I spoke with the President of Indonesia, Joko Widodo, to offer our condolences and our resolute support to Indonesia as we condemn the murderous terrorist attack on civilians and police in Jakarta last night.

While we mourn, we must learn from these events, as we do, and sharpen our resolve to defeat the terrorists abroad and at home. Our first priority is to keep Australians safe. The complex outlook in this area continues to see innovation on the part of the terrorists as they change their methods of operation. We need to be as agile, or more agile, than them. I regularly discuss this with our agencies, and in fact I was discussing it with several of the premiers only today. We have boosted funding for our law enforcement, intelligence and security agencies by $1½ billion since August 2014. Through the budget we are investing an additional $321 million to ensure the AFP has the specialist capabilities it needs to address these threats—the single largest funding boost to the AFP's domestic policing capabilities in over a decade.

Our agencies have disrupted 12 major plots since September 2014. A number of them, if carried out, would have resulted in mass casualties. Honourable members will be aware of the plot to detonate devices and commit other assaults in the area of Federation Square prior to Christmas. Sixty-three people have been charged as a result of 28 separate counterterrorism operations. Just on Tuesday, a South Australian woman was charged with membership of a terrorist organisation. This is a very high priority; there is none higher. Our commitment, resolute, is to keep Australians safe. We have the best agencies in the world doing that job 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We will not rest in our determination to keep Australia secure.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Leader of the Opposition, on indulgence.

Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The opposition wishes to associate itself with the remarks of the government. Along with the evil in Manchester, the events in Jakarta overnight are absolutely despicable. The death of three Indonesian policemen and the wounding of five civilians and another five Indonesian policemen at a bus terminal, at the start of the great festival of Ramadan, shows that terrorists have no respect for the faith, creed or background of any of their victims. We most wholeheartedly endorse the Prime Minister's remarks.