Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Home Affairs. Will the minister please outline to the House how the Morrison government is creating a stronger Australia in 2021 by taking action to keep Australian families safe?

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

I thank the honourable member for his question. Obviously, as the Prime Minister outlined in his speech at the National Press Club yesterday, this government is determined to keep Australians safe from the coronavirus, but we're also very determined to keep Australians safe from the threats of terrorism and foreign espionage.

We have for a number of years now had a terror threat level at 'probable', and the espionage threat remains at levels higher than during the Cold War. So these threats are extant, and we need to deal with them in a sensible way. I'm proud of the fact that, because of the management of the budget, we've been able to invest more into ASIO to support the work that they do, and funding for ASIO is now at its highest level in 70 years. We've contributed an additional $300 million over four years to the Australian Federal Police and record funding to our other agencies. We are committed to making sure that we can deal with the threat against our national sovereignty, and we've introduced legislation to this effect.

I'm also very proud of the work that the Morrison government has done to protect our vulnerable young children, particularly those online, from the insidious and abhorrent threat posed by dark-web predators, and we have legislation before the parliament to designed to protect our children. In our cybersecurity strategy, given the amount of time Australians, their businesses and their families now spend online, we have invested $1.67 billion into protecting those families, businesses and our infrastructure. It is incredibly important that we work with the private sector and with our law enforcement agencies to deliver that outcome.

The Morrison government has also cancelled the visas now of 6,200 people, including for 309 individuals who have been involved in organised crime and outlaw motorcycle gangs, bearing in mind that the main business of outlaw motorcycle gang members is to distribute amphetamines and other drugs in our country. If you look at our country towns, where the scourge of ice is ravaging young communities, it's incredibly important that we continue that work. We want to defeat the importation of those drugs, we want to defeat the manufacturing of those drugs domestically and we want to stamp out the activity of the outlaw motorcycle gangs who are involved in the distribution of those drugs to young children and to communities across the country.

The Morrison government has continued to keep our borders secure. I want to pay tribute to all of the front-line officers in the agencies within the home affairs department for the work that they do 24/7 to keep Australians safe. The Prime Minister, myself, members of the National Security Committee and cabinet will make sure that we continue to provide support to those officers in the great work they do.