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

I thank Senator Faruqi for her question. The government has made it abundantly clear that we are absolutely committed to protecting Australia and Australians from all threats.

In terms of our laws, you will be aware that our arrangements are ideologically agnostic and that they focus on the threat of criminality. As a government, we make no distinction in targeting threats to the Australian community. Our agencies—and I commend our agencies—are working hard to tackle the threats from all sources, whether they be from Islamist extremism, right-wing extremism or any other source. Australians should have confidence that Australia's counterterrorism arrangements work equally well for right-wing-motivated groups and individuals as they do for Islamic extremism. I will make the point, though, that under the former Labor government, Labor actually cut $128 million from the AFP between 2010 and 2011, and between 2013 and 2014.

But our laws and arrangements are ideologically agnostic and they focus on threat and criminality.