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

Thank you very much indeed for your first question, Senator Lindgren. I wonder if I could crave the indulgence of the Senate just for a few moments to welcome Senator Jo Lindgren to the Senate. Senator Jo Lindgren is of course the great-niece of the great Neville Bonner, who joined this chamber as a Liberal senator from Queensland some 45 years ago. Senator Lindgren, both Senator Ian Macdonald and I knew your great-uncle. I cannot tell you how delighted he would be to see a member of his family take a seat in this chamber.

Honourable senators: Hear, hear!

Senator Lindgren, you enter the Senate at a time when the terrorist threat to Australia has never been higher. The government is already taking strong action to keep Australians safe. We have reformed and will continue to reform our national security legislation. We have provided $1.33 billion in additional funding for security and law enforcement agencies. We will continue to do everything we can to ensure that those agencies have all the powers and the tools that they need to combat the growing terrorist threat to this country.

To that end, the government will shortly introduce legislation to amend the Citizenship Act to ensure that dual nationals who engage in terrorism will lose their Australian citizenship. Those new powers will give us a vital additional tool to combat the growing terrorist threat to this country. Our overriding objective, Senator Lindgren—and it is an objective shared by all senators on the side of the chamber, and I know by all senators on the opposition benches as well—is to keep our country safe. I welcome the fact that the Australian Labor Party has indicated that it intends to support our measures to strip terrorists who hold dual citizenship of their Australian citizenship so long as the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness is observed.