Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the senator for his question. I understand that the Attorney-General made some public commentary on a very important trial held in Melbourne recently where the jury returned guilty verdicts against six defendants on charges concerning terrorism. As a result of very good and effective cooperation between the Australian Federal Police, ASIO, the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions and the Victorian police, there was a successful prosecution. The Attorney-General, in learning of that, appropriately spoke publicly about his support for the actions of those agencies and his pleasure and the government’s pleasure, and I hope all senators’ pleasure, that these matters were successfully prosecuted—that we were able to successfully prosecute those who were charged with very serious offences concerning terrorism.

Those matters have been dealt with by the court. As I understand it, on Monday the Attorney-General sought to comment not on matters still before the court but on matters related to the decision on those matters that was made on Monday. I think it is the Attorney-General’s role to assure the community that the government is doing all it can to protect Australians. It is important for him to show support for the agencies, to recognise the contribution that many in the Muslim community in Australia made in assisting with the investigation and, I think, to generally reinforce the need to tackle any threats of terrorism within our society. I think it was important for the Attorney-General to speak of behalf of the government to recognise the work that was done in the successful prosecution of these terrorism charges and acknowledge the important work of the security and police agencies. I think, as I say, the Attorney-General was commenting appropriately in responding to the decision on that case.