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

Once again, I reaffirm the Morrison government's firm commitment and duty to protecting Australians and our international visitors from the very real and unique threats to our aviation environment posed by violent extremists and nefarious organised crime groups. On that basis, we will not be supporting the amendment put forward by Senator Patrick.

Senator Patrick seeks to amend this bill to provide that these new measures, measures developed to keep the Australian public safe, are repealed, sunsetted, after four years. Airports are attractive targets for terrorists and focal points for serious and organised crime groups seeking to expand their illicit operations both within Australia and abroad. Currently, police rely on a patchwork of Commonwealth, state and territory laws to address the criminal safety and security threats at major Australian airports. The measures in this bill will address some of this complexity by giving police consistent and appropriate powers to respond to these threats and protect Australians.

The threats to our aviation network are not static and are not simply going to disappear or diminish in four years. We need to ensure that police powers continue to evolve in parallel with the threat environment. The new powers in the bill were developed based on operational advice from the AFP. The AFP will continue to monitor security threats to major airports from terrorism and serious and organised crime. For these reasons the government will not be supporting this amendment.

The CHAIR: The question is that amendment (1) be agreed to.

Bill reported with amendments; report adopted.