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

I can inform you, Senator, because, as I am sure you know, since September of last year, the Australian threat assessment level has been at 'high'. The definition of 'high' is that a terrorism event is assessed to be likely.

When the security agencies made that intelligence judgement in September of last year, concluding that they believed a terrorism event was likely, tragically, only three months later we saw the Martin Place siege and the loss of the lives of two Australians. It cannot be denied that the threat is real.

We know that today, approximately 120 Australians—about half of them dual citizens, to whom these laws will apply—are fighting on behalf of ISIL and other terrorism groups in the Middle East, and one of the purposes of these laws is to keep them out of this country.