Jacinta Collins (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Hansard source

Mr President, I seek leave to make a brief statement.

Leave granted.

I thank the Attorney-General for his statement on the Counter-Terrorism Legislation Amendment (Foreign Fighters) Bill 2014. The bill is designed to implement measures to address the emerging threat of Australians seeking to travel overseas to fight with terrorist organisations—so-called foreign fighters—and to protect Australians from threats posed by such fighters on their return home. The bill will also amend a range of other national security laws with the intention of strengthening the ability of law enforcement and security agencies to address the current terrorist threat. National security should always be above politics. When it comes to keeping Australians safe from the threat of terrorism, we are all in this together. We will work constructively with the government to consider national security law reform proposals and ensure their efficient passage through the parliament, including this bill.

I thank the government for engaging constructively with the opposition on the first tranche of national security law reform, which is being considered in the Senate today. I look forward to this constructive engagement continuing as we work our way through the foreign fighters bill and the metadata bill, which is expected to come before the Senate before the end of the year. Labor believes that our security agencies should have all the powers they need to keep Australians safe from harm. Labor also strongly believes in the importance of protecting fundamental democratic freedoms. As we work our way through these proposals, Labor will ensure that national security considerations are balanced against the importance of upholding the democratic freedoms that underpin the Australian way of life. We must ensure that, in legislating to protect ourselves against the terrorist threat, we do not ourselves destroy the very freedoms we seek to defend. Parliamentary scrutiny will be our first line of defence.

Labor looks forward to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security undertaking an open and transparent inquiry into this bill. I take this opportunity to thank the committee for its important work on the first tranche of national security law reform. The 17 recommendations to improve that bill are testament to the value of parliamentary scrutiny. We await the government's advice on timing and conduct, although I note that Senator Brandis has provided some of that detail into the foreign fighters bill. I thank the Senate.