Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister please update the House on last week's counterterrorism operation to disrupt a plot to bring down an aeroplane? What steps is the government taking to keep all Australians safe, including in my electorate of Petrie?

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

I thank the honourable member for his question. Last week, the joint counterterrorism team in New South Wales, including the Australian Federal Police, the New South Wales Police and ASIO, disrupted one of the biggest terrorist plots in our history and contained it. They were able to do so, as Deputy Commissioner Mike Phelan said last week, because of the laws that this parliament has given them to enable them to do that work. We have ensured that, whenever our security agencies need additional legislative support or resources, we give it to them. There is no place for 'set and forget'.

The work that they did was remarkable. Two individuals have been charged with terrorism offences which attract a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. They relate to an aborted attempt on 15 July to take an improvised explosive device—that is, a bomb—onto an Etihad flight departing Sydney for the Middle East and the intent to build an improvised chemical dispersal device which would, had it been completed, have been able to disperse poisonous gas.

Had this plot been successful, the consequences would have been catastrophic: hundreds of deaths, lives ended and lives changed forever. This plot was directed by Daesh—ISIL—from Syria. These are cowards in the Middle East radicalising and directing people in Australia to kill in the name of their mad, demonic, deathly Islamist terrorist ideology. This is a real threat. This terrorist threat is very real and very close. It reminds us of the point that I have made repeatedly: in the internet age, nowhere is far away from anywhere else. So it will be alleged by police in the course of these proceedings that these conspirators were being directed from the Middle East as though their controller were across the street. It's a sober reminder of the challenges we face.

What we have done was to put additional security measures in place at Sydney Airport immediately, on the Thursday prior to the raids. These were extended to all major airports around the country. The terrorist threat level to aviation was raised. It has now been restored to its pre-existing level, but continued stronger protections will be in place at our airports. There is no room for complacency, no room for 'set and forget'. Our agencies are the best in the world, and we are working to ensure that they remain so, keeping Australians safe.