Andrew Hastie (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Home Affairs. Will the minister update the House on action the government is taking to keep Australians safe? Why is it important that we have a consistent approach to national security?

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration and Border Protection) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question and acknowledge the work that he does in sharing the committee on intelligence and security in this parliament. He does great bipartisan work with some of those opposite, and I acknowledge the work of that committee.

As all Australians saw in the news last week, there was a terrible incident that took place in Melbourne. Sadly, it's not the first terrorist-related incident to take place in Melbourne or in our country. A 24-year-old woman has been charged with a terrorism offence following a stabbing at Mill Park. Whilst those matters will properly be investigated, and that matter is before the court, in a general sense, it allows us an opportunity to pause and reflect on the influence, particularly down the line into the minds of young people, ISIL has not just in our country but around the world, and we need to recognise this scourge is with us and with us for a long period of time.

The Department of Home Affairs—the construct put together by the Prime Minister before Christmas—allows all of our intelligence and security agencies to come together to work in the most effective fashion and to work very closely with our state colleagues. I want to acknowledge the work of the Victorian Joint Counter Terrorism Team for their dedication not only last week but around the clock in trying to keep Victorians safe. They work very closely with the Australian Federal Police, with ASIO and with our other agencies to make sure that we can give ourselves the best chance of defeating the scourge of terrorism.

It's worth pointing out to the House that, since 12 September 2014, when the national terrorism threat level was raised to 'probable', 85 people have been charged as a result of 36 counterterrorism related operations around the country. There have, sadly, tragically, been six attacks and 14 major counterterrorism disruption operations in response to potential planning in this country.

I want to praise the work of all of our federal and state agencies. The government has committed a record amount of funding into the intelligence and security agencies, and we will continue to do everything within our power to make sure that we can keep Australians safe, particularly those that would gather in places such as shopping centres and in movie theatres, as we've seen in incidents around the world. There is a lot of work that goes on around the clock that Australians aren't aware of. That work keeps us safe. This government will always continue to support that work so that we can have every effort in keeping the Australian public safe.