Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, I present the committee's report entitled Report on the review of the relisting of Hizballah's External Security Organisation as a terrorist organisation under the Criminal Code.

Report made a parliamentary paper in accordance with standing order 39(e).

by leave—Hezbollah's External Security Organisation has been listed as a terrorist organisation under the Criminal Code since 5 June 2003. It has been relisted in 2005, 2007, 2009, 2012, 2015 and in the last parliament on 2 May 2018. On 29 April this year Hezbollah's External Security Organisation was relisted again, and this report marks the completion of the intelligence and security committee's review of that decision. All members of the committee support the relisting of Hezbollah's External Security Organisation as a terrorist organisation because of its record of directly and indirectly engaging in and supporting terrorist acts.

However, as the committee did in June 2018, we are again asking why the government has decided to confine the relisting of Hezbollah only to its external security organisation. In June 2018 the intelligence and security committee recommended that further consideration be given to extending the listing to the military wing of Hezbollah. Regrettably the government does not appear to have given this recommendation such consideration. In this report the committee has gone further than it went in 2018 by calling on the government to give consideration to extending the listing to the entirety of Hezbollah, or, at the very least, to the military wing of the organisation. The United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and the Arab League all list the entirety of Hezbollah, including its military wing, as a terrorist organisation. The overwhelming evidence to the committee has made clear that Hezbollah is a unitary organisation, and it is difficult to see how it can realistically or reasonably be subdivided into separate parts, only one of which constitutes a terrorist organisation.

Let's be clear about who and what Hezbollah is. I have visited the Asociacion Mutual Israelita Argentina, a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires. In 1994 a van loaded with explosives was driven into the building by a suicide bomber, killing 85 people and injuring hundreds more. All of the evidence points to Iran and Hezbollah being behind the bombing. Given that even some representatives of Hezbollah itself have said that it is delusional to draw a distinction between the so-called military and political wings of the organisation, I find it difficult to understand why it should matter what part of Hezbollah carried out this devastating attack against the Jewish community of Buenos Aires.

In 2019 the United Kingdom moved from listing only the military wing of Hezbollah to listing the whole of the organisation. In announcing the decision in the House of Commons on 26 February 2019, the United Kingdom Home Secretary, Sajid Javid, said:

There have long been calls to ban the whole group, with the distinction between the two factions derided as smoke and mirrors. Hezbollah itself has laughed off the suggestion that there is a difference. I have carefully considered the evidence and I am satisfied that they are one and the same, with the entire organisation being linked to terrorism.

…   …   …

This Government have continued to call on Hezbollah to end its armed status; it has not listened. Indeed, its behaviour has escalated; the distinction between its political and military wings is now untenable. It is right that we act now to proscribe this entire organisation.

Here in Australia, the Morrison government has not followed the clear approach of our key allies, without, it must be said, explaining its position publicly, even at the most general level. This is unsatisfactory, to say the least. I urge the government to read the committee's bipartisan report carefully and take its recommendation seriously. The Australian people deserve no less.

Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—In a bipartisan report, the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security has unanimously recommended that the government expand the listing of Hezbollah in its entirety as a terrorist organisation. The committee was asked to review the minister's decision to relist Hezbollah's External Security Organisation. The committee found no reason to disallow the legislative instrument, but the committee recommends that the government consider listing the whole organisation in its entirety.

There are five points I'd like to make. First, why is listing an organisation as a terrorist organisation important? Listing such an organisation can act as a deterrent to people who may be tempted to join a terrorist organisation. It can disrupt activity, and it also has a symbolic value, demonstrating Australia rejects the group's terrorist activities. In a prosecution for terrorism offences, the authorities do not have to prove that the organisation is a terrorist organisation. The effect of only partially listing Hezbollah is that if the defence pleads that a terror suspect is involved with other parts of the organisation but not the listed part, it may hamper the authorities in protecting the broader community from acts of terrorism. This is what happened in the case of Ali Haidar. The New South Wales government attempted to have Mr Haidar listed as a high-risk terrorist offender due to his history of violent criminal offences and his support for Hezbollah. The prosecution in this case was unsuccessful, in part because it could only prove Mr Haidar's support of Hezbollah, not that he was a supporter of Hezbollah's ESO, and, as such, could not prove his support of a terrorist organisation.

Second, a compartmentalised Hezbollah is a fiction. Hezbollah itself considers itself to be one organisation. The deputy secretary-general of Hezbollah, Naim Qassem, said:

Hezbollah has one single leadership, and its name is the decision-making Shura Council. It manages the political activity, the Jihad activity, the cultural and the social activities… we have one leadership, with one administration.

The head of Hezbollah's parliamentary delegation, Mohamed Raad, said:

The Hezbollah military wing is a lie invented by the Europeans because they feel a need to communicate with us and they want to make a delusional separation between the so-called military and political wings

Third, Australia is now the only country which lists only the Hezbollah External Security Organisation. A range of other countries list Hezbollah in its entirety. Those countries are the Arab League, Argentina, Austria, Bahrain, Canada, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Guatemala, the Gulf Cooperation Council, Honduras, Israel, Japan, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Paraguay, Serbia, Slovenia, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, the United States, the United Kingdom and Venezuela. In 2019 the United Kingdom upgraded its listing to list the entirety of Hezbollah. In announcing the decision to list Hezbollah in its entirety, the then UK home secretary, Sajid Javid, said:

There have long been calls to ban the whole group, with the distinction between the two factions derided as smoke and mirrors. Hezbollah itself has laughed off the suggestion that there is a difference. I have carefully considered the evidence and I am satisfied that they are one and the same, with the entire organisation being linked to terrorism.

…   …   …

This Government have continued to call on Hezbollah to end its armed status; it has not listened. Indeed, its behaviour has escalated; the distinction between its political and military wings is now untenable. It is right that we act now to proscribe this entire organisation.

In response to the tabling of this report in the other place, Mr Javid released a tweet with this to say:

This report is right - the 'political wing' of Hizballah is a false distinction, as is recognised by UK, US, Canada, Germany and others.

Australia are great allies on counterterrorism so I'm sure the Morrison government will consider this carefully.

Fourth, the intervention of the head of ASIO, the Director-General of Security, Mike Burgess, in hearings for this inquiry was highly significant. The director-general told the committee that expanding the current listing of Hezbollah to the whole organisation of Hezbollah would 'not impact ASIO's ability to do its job'. And when the case of Mr Haidar was put to Mr Burgess, he observed, 'I agree with your view on how unhelpful the partial listing is for law enforcement.'

The final point I want to make is in relation to relations with Lebanon. The Australian Lebanese community have made a vital contribution to this nation. I am proud of the century old, significant Lebanese diaspora in my electorate. It's hard to think of an area of Australian life which has not been enriched by the Lebanese community. I know people in the Lebanese community are concerned about speaking up against Hezbollah, because it forms part of the Lebanese government and they fear reprisals against family in Lebanon. The Lebanese government has many problems, as we saw in the wake of last year's explosion in Beirut. Hezbollah is not a force for good in their government. Australia's relationship with Hezbollah is important, but as even a cursory examination of the foreign Commonwealth office website will show there's no diminution in the relationship between Lebanon and Britain in a substantial sense as a result of listing the entire organisation of Hezbollah. I encourage our government to give this report serious consideration and follow the example of so many of our allies.

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

by leave—I've sat on this committee, the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, now for some number of years. I recall and note that the Hezbollah's External Security Organisation wing was originally prescribed in 2003. There have since been six relistings which have required, under the statue, our committee to examine the listing and to make recommendations. I've sat as a member of the committee on five of the considerations of those relistings—for some period of time. I recall when we first looked at this in 2005, and subsequently that this distinction between the external security organisation and Hezbollah more generally seemed to be very artificial. My concern certainly wasn't ameliorated over the considerations of each relisting. I think it's very important, particularly in the Five Eyes, to note that we were the only Five Eyes partner that didn't list the military wing or Hezbollah in its entirety in terms of a terrorist organisation, and I don't think that occurring benefited Australia or Australia's national interest. I also wanted to raise a concern about the fact that in 2018 when the bipartisan committee came to a conclusion and recommended to the government that in the prescription process that it would contemplate listing the military wing we didn't get a response to that—the 2018 report—and that's concerning.

The government relies on this committee a very great deal. When I speak to interlocutors on sister committees in the United Kingdom, the United States and elsewhere they talk about the great work that this committee has done. For example, when we passed the foreign interference laws, those laws were passed only due to the very diligent work of the committee. The other organisations in jurisdictions like the United Kingdom looked at what we've done, our work, very closely.

So my point to the government is, particularly when we are recommending something of this substance and this weight, that the government gives appropriate consideration to this recommendation and reports back to the committee. I think that's very important. The other thing to stipulate here is that for those who might feel that they've been singled out, particularly in the Lebanese Shia population, that is not the case. For the committee itself—and I speak for the committee—there were many, many, many hours of deliberation. We stand here and we present the report. As the member for Isaacs and the shadow Attorney-General who is sitting here listening to my contribution would acknowledge, many hours of consideration are given to listings of this nature. Consideration is absolutely given to those who might be impacted by these recommendations. These recommendations made by the committee are never made lightly and they take every factor into concern, every factor into consideration, as we've done when we've listed the PKK. I wanted to give that reassurance, that this is something that the committee has given great consideration to, has not done lightly, but inevitably have come to a conclusion that that fig leaf of an external security organisation not being inextricably linked to Hezbollah is just a fiction. It can't be maintained. I also say, particularly, that Sajid Javid—as the member for Berowra pointed out—mentioned in a tweet today:

This report is right—the 'political wing' of Hizballah is a false distinction, as is recognised by UK, US, Canada, Germany and others—

including the Arab League and the Gulf Cooperation Council. I think Javid also has an important point here:

Australia are great allies on counterterrorism so I'm sure the Morrison government will consider this carefully.

In closing, I would urge the government to consider this recommendation carefully. Our fight against those who would cause us harm is enduring, but we fight collectively along with our Five Eyes partners. I think, in terms of this recommendation, that it syncs us in with the rest of the Five Eyes community. And, in our struggle as countries and democracies that have shared values and principles, this is another tool which, as I said, syncs us in with that global fight against terrorism and the damage that those who propagate terrorism seek to do to democracies. This recommendation is in the national interest.

I commend the members of our committee. It is not an easy thing to come to a conclusion, in a lot of circumstances, on a unanimous, bipartisan report, and the recommendation that has been made in this case is not an easy recommendation. I pay tribute to the chair, Senator James Paterson, and also to my friend and colleague the member for Isaacs and shadow Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus. His tireless work for us on this committee adds to our committee; it makes the committee a better committee. I certainly thank him for his excellent work on this particular recommendation. I commend this report to the House.