Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs (House)) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

[by video link] I rise to speak on the Charter of the United Nations Amendment Bill 2021 and to express Labor's support for this important legislation. Next month marks 20 years since the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, events which precipitated strategic decisions and legal reforms that are with us and evolve today. One of the first decisions was the military intervention in Afghanistan against those who gave safe haven to terrorists. Twenty years later, in the very present, we were last week witness to another terrorist attack on American lives and the lives of those who assisted Western forces.

Labor condemns in the strongest terms the terrorist attack at Kabul airport that caused the death of at least 60 people and injured dozens more. This was a despicable act against Afghans seeking security and those who were helping them. I note that Islamic State Khorasan Province, a group the government has listed as a terrorist organisation, has claimed responsibility. We grieve with the people of Afghanistan and with our US allies. We remain gravely concerned for Australian citizens and visa holders who remain in Afghanistan and can no longer safely travel to Kabul airport.

As I noted in this place last week, there is and will continue to be analysis, commentary and debate as to the merits or otherwise of the 20-year mission, along with the understandable concern and, sometimes, complaint about the manner of the withdrawal. Much of our focus needs to be on what can be done to help those in Afghanistan who helped our troops and diplomatic staff and now need our help. I reiterate our calls for the government to ensure that Afghan nationals who assisted our troops, and their families, are taken to safety. It is not only a moral obligation we owe; such actions are of vital strategic importance. Our standing in the world, our ability to work with locals and foster trust in the future and our ability to further prevent the conditions that allow extremist activity to thrive very much depend on how we act now.

Another way to address and prevent the rise of terrorism, and a focus of this bill, is to combat the financing of terrorist groups and to limit access to funds. One of the immediate actions taken in the wake of the September 11 attacks was United Nations Security Council Resolution 1373, adopted on 28 September 2001. Australia, as a UN member state, has an obligation under this resolution to prevent and suppress the financing of terrorist acts, to freeze the assets of individual terrorists and terrorist entities and to prevent the provision of assets to those persons and entities. Denying terrorists and terrorist groups the ability to access the funds necessary to commit terrorist acts strengthens our commitment to preventing and suppressing terrorist acts now and into the future.

This bill ensures that Australia continues to fully implement its international counterterrorism sanctions obligations. As a UN member state, Australia takes seriously its obligations to contribute to global peace, stability and security in accordance with international law. One of the strongest and most enduring bipartisan views of this parliament is that an effective and enforceable counterterrorism financial sanctions regime is vital for Australia to uphold its obligations to the international community and combat the financing of terrorism in Australia and around the world.

We note that the Charter of the United Nations Amendment Bill 2021 seeks to amend the Charter of the United Nations Act 1945 to specify that counterterrorism financial sanctions listings, made under section 15 of the act, and revocations, made under section 16 of the act, be made by legislative instrument. The act makes provision for, amongst other things, the listing of persons or entities associated with the commission of terrorist acts and assets owned or controlled by those persons or entities. The purpose of a listing under section 15 of the act is to make it an offence to use or deal with the assets of or make an asset available to a listed person or entity, as well as to use or deal with a listed asset or class of assets. This regime is an important tool which implements Australia's international obligations to cooperate on the prevention of terrorist financing.

The amendment bill also confirms the validity of action that has been taken or which may in the future need to be taken in respect of conduct relating to historical counterterrorism listings that were made administratively. We also note that the amendment bill will not retrospectively change the operation of the Charter of the United Nations Act, alter a criminal offence, impose any additional punishment or vary the terms or scope of any previous counterterrorism listings made by the authority of the minister. Labor supports efforts to ensure the effective application and enforceability of Australia's counterterrorism legislative framework to prevent and counter the financing of terrorism acts. As such Labor supports the Charter of the United Nations Amendment Bill 2021 and welcomes its passage through the parliament.

Katie Allen (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Australia's counterterrorism measures are a pivotal part of our country's greater obligation to our global community. Of enormous importance is ensuring that we prevent and suppress terrorist acts by stemming access to funds and other financial and economic resources. The recent events in Afghanistan have reminded us not only of what terrorism is capable of but that the fight against it must continue without complacency. Terrorist activity is layered in complexity and does not have an easy solution. But Australia is committed and will continue to ensure that we starve terrorist organisations of resources that would otherwise empower them in their actions.

The Charter of the United Nations Amendment Bill 2021 seeks a minor but important change in how Australia treats counterterrorism financial sanctions listings. These listings serve to make it an offence to use or deal with the assets of or make an asset available to the listed person or entity, as well as to use or deal with a listed asset or class of asset. The bill will make these counterterrorism sanctions listings legislative instruments on the Federal Register of Legislation. Functionally, this reduces the risk of a successful legal challenge relating to the enforceability of the listings. The advice for this amendment comes from the Australian Government Solicitor and ensures optimal consistency of the process for listing persons and entities for counterterrorism financial sanctions under the Charter of the United Nations Act.

I stress that the bill does not impact the validity of any counterterrorism listings. Instead, it allows for an increase in the enforceability of the very sanctions that protect our way of life and security for all Australians. With all current counterterrorism listings registered on the Federal Register of Legislation in late May this year, this legislative change is important and necessary. This bill hedges Australia's bets and puts beyond doubt the enforceability of listings before registration on the Federal Register of Legislation. In the event that any of these listings were found to have legislative characteristics, this bill would stand to protect listings in the period prior their registration. Core to the Australian way of life is a feeling of safety, a knowledge that, while terrorism exists in this world, the government is informed and committed to shutting down domestic threats. Crucial to this is our international commitment to the Charter of the United Nations, whereby Australia alongside the other allied nations come together in a powerful force against terrorist activity. By making it an offence to deal with listed terrorist organisations, Australians are protected from the nefarious activities of these groups, whose attacks on the innocent in the name of hate itself threaten the freedoms we enjoy in our wonderful country.

I call on all Australians to think of the heartbreaking images we have seen recently coming out of Afghanistan, particularly of those at the heavily contested Kabul airport. We've seen parents hand over their children to American forces so they can have a chance at life, knowing full well they may never see them again. We've seen individuals cling to the fuselages of departing planes on runways just to have a chance of freedom—the freedom we may take for granted in Australia, the freedom that makes Australia the very place we call home. This is a sobering reminder throughout the global pandemic, which has been on our minds for the last 18 months, that there are other global issues that we must keep at the forefront of our minds both as policymakers here in this place and as Australians.

Now is not the time to live in the echo chamber of what matters mostly to Australians. The events in Afghanistan remind us of our global commitment and help us understand the privileges we enjoy here at home. Our international brothers and sisters around the world look to our liberal democracy, freedoms, ethical law and respect for the rule of law and for its institutions. These are the things that make us Australia and these are the things that we must protect.

The least we can do as a nation in the fight against terrorist activity is to limit funding to terrorist groups. As part of the cornerstone of our counterterrorism policy, this bill strengthens the ability for Australia to enforce these rules and keeps dangerous assets out of the hands of people who would commit terrible and inhumane acts, threatening not only our people and our homeland but the globe's humanity.

The reach of terrorist activity is something the Morrison government does not take lightly at all. In fact, the Prime Minister has already taken steps to ensure that domestic websites will not be able to host harmful and extremist content from terrorists. This is something that we as Australians should all welcome and was initiated in the wake of the Christchurch terrorist attack. The Morrison government rose to tackle the issue at hand, whereby criminals were given platforms to glorify their crimes. We watched in horror during that Christchurch terrorist attack, but I think the world looked to the Morrison government for its early initial response, and this was welcomed around the world. This act was unacceptable, and this government has seen, since then, the outlaw of the spread of this type of material that threatens the ability for Australians and other citizens around the world to feel safe at home and at work but also, importantly, online. Moreover, the Morrison government's action included establishing a 24/7 crisis coordination centre to monitor and notify relevant government agencies of online crisis events involving terrorist and extreme violence material and will provide the eSafety Commissioner with information to undertake rapid assessments.

In addition to these measures, the Morrison government has established a task force to combat terrorist and extreme violent material online. We all know the benefits of open-access internet. It's helpful as an educational resource, it's helpful with information as we deal with things like the global pandemic that we're all facing and it's a means of communication for those who may not able to access it more easily, particularly in rural and remote parts of Australia, and, of course, we've all relied on online open access for our entertainment through lockdowns during COVID. But the Morrison government does not view the internet completely through rose tinted glasses. The government recognises the possible dissemination of material allowing for extremism to flourish, and we have taken measures to halt this. These actions have helped secure the internet environment for all Australians.

This bill cannot be simply reduced to the legislative changes before us. We must keep the bigger global picture in the front of our minds. Terrorist activity continues to flourish, but the Morrison government is leading the way in restricting these groups' access to resources. This bill marks a crucial step forward for Australian counterterrorism as part of our global obligations, ensuring optimal consistency by registering all listings with the Federal Register of Legislation—and, subsequently, enforcement of relevant policy is made rock solid removing any doubt it could have led to legal challenges. We will not relax on the important issue of our national security, especially in the case of the global terrorist threat. As the House moves forward, we must be constantly reminded of why this legislation exists. We cannot forget the terrorism that exists in this world. The good that we do in this place needs to thwart the efforts of those who seek to subvert human rights; we owe it to ourselves, our children, our nation and the world.

Fiona Martin (Reid, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to support the Charter of the United Nations Amendment Bill 2021. In two weeks we will mark 20 years since the September 11 attacks. For anyone who witnessed those scenes 20 years ago, the images of the towers falling, the sheer unbelievability of it, the numbness it evoked—I remember many people at the time thinking it was a scene from a movie playing on their TV. And, although 20 years have passed, the memory of those attacks has not dimmed in our consciousness; those images remain within us.

Days after those attacks, the UN Security Council adopted resolution 1373 in response. Resolution 1373 further built upon the International Convention on the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism and council resolution 1267. It requires Australia, as a UN member state, to suppress terrorism by implementing targeted financial sanctions in relation to persons involved in terrorist activities. Under Australian law, the foreign minister can designate a person or entity who commits, attempts to commit, participates or facilitates the commission of terrorist attacks. This is an important national security measure because, as has been noted by the UN Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive, the reality is that terrorism financing is a global phenomenon which not only threatens member states' security but also undermines economic development and financial market stability. It is therefore of paramount importance to stem the flow of funds to terrorists.

You only have to look at the individuals and organisations Australia has imposed sanctions on to understand why this bill we are debating today matters. To date, Australia has implemented sanctions against members of al-Qaeda, financiers of al-Qaeda, members of the al-Nuresh Front and individuals and entities who were part of the illegal annexation of Crimea, just to name a few. There are over 6,900 individuals and entities on Australia's consolidated list that are subject to targeted financial sanctions. Australia has a strong track record when it comes to combating the financing of terrorism, including hosting the 'No Money for Terror' Ministerial Conference on Counter-Terrorism Financing in 2019. This conference included 65 delegations. This included 23 ministers; representatives from 15 international bodies, including the United Nations, the Financial Action Task Force and Financial Action Task Force style regional bodies; and representatives from 28 private sector and not-for-profit organisations. The 2019 conference assessed the evolving global and Indo-Pacific threat environments. Consistent with UN Security Council resolution 2462 in 2019 and the global standards set by the Financial Action Task Force, participants agreed to promote international and regional cooperation and improve capacity to combat the financing of terrorism.

We know that the task ahead for Australia and other countries when it comes to freezing assets and stopping the flow of finance to terrorist organisations will only become more difficult—especially given the increasing use of digital and cryptocurrencies, which, when coupled with other anonymising technologies and use of the dark web, provide new channels through which terrorist financiers can hide their financial dealings. That's just another reason why the surveillance legislation amendment bill the House was debating last week was so important.

The bill before us now is a relatively simple legislative change but a vitally important one to provide certainty around the enforceability of counterterrorism listings. Successive governments since 2001 have treated counterterrorism listings made under part 4 of the Charter of the United Nations Act as administrative rather than legislative in character. This means that CT listings were made via Gazette notice rather than being registered as legislative instruments on the Federal Register of Legislation. This bill acts on updated advice to government, which recommended registering the listings as instruments on the federal register to reduce the risk of successful legal challenge relating to their enforceability. In line with this advice, all current CT listings which were originally gazetted were registered on the FRL on 26 May 2021. Despite the registration, the legislative change is still required to put beyond doubt the validity of any past enforcement of historical listings.

This bill has been introduced out of an abundance of caution to put beyond doubt the enforceability of these listings before they were registered on the federal register. But, Mr Deputy Speaker, you only have to look at the entities and organisations on the counterterrorism listing to understand why you would rather have an abundance of caution than let any one of these try to test a potential legal loophole. Thank you. I commend the bill to the House.

David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In summing up, I thank those who have spoken on the Charter of the United Nations Amendment Bill 2021 for their contributions to this debate. The Australian government is committed to preventing and suppressing terrorist acts to support international peace and security.

One of the most effective ways to combat terrorism is to deny terrorists and terrorist entities the ability to access the funds necessary for the commission of terrorist acts, which Australia does through the Charter of the United Nations Act 1945. This bill is not about altering the existing regulatory framework set out by that act. Put simply, it is about transparency and putting beyond doubt any question of the enforceability of validly made listings. The amendments in this bill change the way counterterrorism financial sanction listings are communicated to the public by ensuring that counterterrorism listings, once made, are registered on the Federal Register of Legislation as legislative instruments. These amendments ensure that part 4 of the Charter of the United Nations Act, the counterterrorism legislative framework, is able to operate as intended by parliament to prevent and respond to the financing of terrorism. The government looks forward to implementing this legislation.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.