Anthony Byrne (Holt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I speak today to the men and women of our intelligence and security services. I speak to the men and women of ASIO, I speak to the men and women of ASIS, I speak to the men and women of the ASD, I speak to the men and women of the AFP, I speak to the men and women of Victoria Police and New South Wales Police and other state and territory police forces, I speak to the men and women of Home Affairs, and I speak to the men and women of the ONI. These are acronyms to the Australian public, but they're your working environment. I say to you that it must be frustrating for you, as you labour day and night to keep Australians safe, to see what passes for political debate in our parliament today. I know much of what you've done to keep us safe and, in this place, on behalf of us all, I say thank you.

Recently I canvassed with officers from the AFP and ASIO the circumstances of an attempt to blow up a plane of a major airline departing Sydney in July 2017. It concerns me deeply how many Australians don't appreciate how close we came to this plane of 400 people being blown up in Australian skies. We were so very close. Had that 9/11-style event occurred, our country as we know it would have been irrevocably changed. But for your work, a very significant follow-up attack would have killed many Australians. Your work prevented that. I know from firsthand experience how men and women of Victoria Police Special Operations Group and ASIO prevented an attack on Anzac Day 2015, which had the potential to kill many people and change the way we commemorate Anzac Day forever. You prevented that, yet, other than desultory and sensationalist reporting from our media, we hear nothing about the threats that you labour mightily to combat every waking hour.

You know that I had for some months a diagram on the whiteboard of my office of what is called a hot entry by police officers, which showed how you would have interdicted and subdued a terrorist wanting to perpetrate a mass-casualty attack on a shopping centre in my area. You also know that I met with a very brave Special Operations Group officer who'd had his hand shot off in an exchange which subdued and killed a terrorist in 2017 in Brighton. But for your labours, but for your work, many more Australians would have been harmed and killed. I've run short of time about what I wanted to say. I'm here to say on behalf of us all: even though you don't read about our thanks and support for your efforts, you must know that our parliament and the people that represent you here support you and will continue to support you in your enduring efforts to keep our country safe.