Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Small and Family Business) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Duniam for what is a very important question. The Liberal-National government's top priority is to keep Australia safe. As part of ensuring our national security, it is essential that we are tough on those terrorists who wish to do our nation and our people harm. Senators would know that the government has introduced legislation to strengthen citizenship loss provisions for dual nationals who have demonstrated repudiation of their allegiance to Australia. This helps to achieve two aims: to keep Australians safe from evolving terrorist threats and to protect the integrity of Australian citizenship and, of course, the privileges that attach to it.

The government's changes remove the requirement for a person to be sentenced to at least six years imprisonment if they've committed a relevant terrorism offence to be eligible to lose their Australian citizenship. Senator Duniam, what we are saying is that a conviction for a terrorism offence is all that will be required, and the laws will apply to any terrorist convicted after 12 December 2005. Our legislation also provides that the minister must be satisfied that the person will not become stateless if their Australian citizenship ceases.

Make no mistake, there are people who have betrayed their allegiance to Australia. These are people who have committed barbaric acts—for example, fighting for ISIS. These are people who have plotted to inflict untold harm on innocent Australian children and families in our cities and in our suburbs. I would hope that all senators would work together to support the important changes that the Australian government has put forward.