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

My question is to the Minister for Home Affairs. Will the minister outline to the House how the Morrison government is working with our regional partners, including our Indonesian friends, to combat the global threat of terrorism?

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Home Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question. Can I say to him and also to the member for Holt, on their leadership of the security and intelligence committee in this parliament: you should both be commended for the leadership you provide. I don't think there's much that the member for Holt, for instance, would say that anybody could argue against when it comes to these matters.

I want to say that we have no more important friend in our region than the Indonesians on the issue of countering returning foreign fighters, which is a scourge across not just Indonesia but our country and the region as well, and also on the ways in which we can gather intelligence to defeat those at the heart of terrorism and those who would seek to do harm here in Australia as well as in Indonesia.

I'd like to pay tribute to my counterpart in Indonesia, Minister Mahfud, for his interaction and his engagement, most recently in Melbourne. We've been able to work very closely together and with other counterparts in Indonesia to make sure that we can say to Australians, a million of whom holiday in Indonesia each year, that we are doing everything possible to keep them safe—young Australians, Australians of all age groups, who take for granted that they can go to Bali or Jakarta or elsewhere in Indonesia and do so in a safe way. So, it is incredibly important that we have a free exchange of intelligence.

We have very clear and definite friendships at a defence level, at a law enforcement level and at an intelligence level, which give us the greatest capacity to make sure that we can defeat the scourge of terrorism. We know that 202 people tragically lost their lives in 2002, including 88 Australians. It was the biggest loss of Australian life as a result of a terrorist attack in our history, and we want to make sure that the lessons from that dreadful event are learnt and remembered every day.

I also want to pay tribute to the officers in my department, including the Australian Federal Police. We have 17 officers stationed in Jakarta, working very closely with their counterparts there. We have also put a lot of funding into the Jakarta Centre for Law Enforcement Cooperation. This year alone, 1,000 officers from not just Indonesia but across the region have undertaken training in that centre. It means that we're able to provide support with not just forensics collection but also intelligence sharing, investigations and, importantly, prosecutions.

I want to say thank you to the Indonesians for the disruptions that have taken place. The authorities there, working with their international partners, including Australia, have been able to disrupt a number of events that would otherwise have resulted in certain death. The partnership between Indonesia and Australia has only been reinforced by the visit of the President today. The relationship will continue to grow.