Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Stoker for her question. Last week, Australia hosted the second No Money for Terror international conference. I acknowledge and thank France for its leadership in convening the first of the No Money for Terror conferences, in 2018, and acknowledge India for offering to host next year's conference. I also want to acknowledge Mr Dutton and Home Affairs for their work in convening the Melbourne meeting.

The goal of these conferences is to work across international boundaries to close loopholes for terrorist financing. We had attending the Melbourne meeting some 81 delegations, representing 67 countries and jurisdictions as well as 14 international organisations, and almost 20 of those delegations were led by ministers or minister equivalents. The Minister for Home Affairs, the Attorney-General and I ran sessions during the conference which were important opportunities for Australia to engage and lead on these issues. We discussed the international and regional threat environments, global responses to kidnap for ransom and the effect of emerging technologies on terrorism financing risks. We also considered how we can enhance public-private partnerships in the context of the No Money for Terror theme, because the engagement of the private sector is obviously pivotal in terms of the movement of money, and how we can take a collective security approach to preventing the exploitation of not-for-profit organisations for terrorism purposes.

Indeed, the private sector was well represented on the second day of the event in recognition of the fact that, in countering terrorism and making sure our civil society organisations are not exploited by terrorists, it has to be a whole-of-community undertaking. We know that governments can't defeat terrorism or their support networks by acting alone. We need a whole-of-society approach if we're to achieve collective security, and that was the approach taken during the No Money for Terror Conference.