George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

I thought, Senator Conroy, that this was a matter that the opposition might take seriously. It is not an exaggeration to say that the risk of returning foreign fighters, in particular those who joined terrorist organisations such as ISIL, is the greatest national security threat that Australia has faced in many years. The government has already introduced legislation—the National Security Legislation Amendment Bill—giving effect to the recommendations of the bipartisan Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security to strengthen the ability of the Australian intelligence community to counter threats arising from terrorism.

On 5 August, the Prime Minister, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and I announced a further set of measures to build Australia's resilience and capability in defending itself from the threat of terrorism. Those measures included the investment of an additional $630 million over the next four years, which will provide funding certainty for the agencies involved in counter-terrorism, in particular ASIO, the AFP, ASIS, ONA and the Customs and Border Protection Service.

The funding responds to the reduced expenditure on those agencies since 2009 and supports new programs to bolster monitoring and disruption activities in Australia and overseas. In addition to finding a range of new counter-terrorism measures, the government will as well introduce a second tranche of laws shortly to boost our counter-terrorism legislative framework.