Sam McMahon (NT, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to respond to Senators Kitching and Ciccone taking note of answers from Senator Birmingham to questions asked by Senator Wong. I might be paraphrasing Senator Wong a little bit, but basically her question was why we as a government did not oppose the motion that was put up. The fact is that there was no motion put. So we didn't not oppose, and we didn't vote against—there was no motion put to the Senate to vote on.

If we turn to some of the comments made by Senator Kitching regarding the issue of violent protests, violence and unacceptable behaviour, we did hear from Senator Birmingham. He said, 'Of course, we oppose and condemn threatening or inflicting violence in any form whatsoever.' So he did address it. We as a government and we as individuals completely oppose threatening, violent or inciteful behaviour by anyone.

Those opposite and those in the corner would have us believe that this is all right-wing extremism. It's not. Certainly, there are extremists out there—right and left wing, and other types—and we must always take action against extremist, politically motivated violence. And we are. I'm pleased to say that this year the government has made a record $1 billion investment in ASIO's most sensitive capabilities. This is to investigate, discover, stamp out, prevent and crack down on this kind of extremism and this kind of violence. So we're definitely doing a lot about the issue.

The other thing that we need to look at is why we're seeing this massive rise in violence and threats—fortunately, at the moment, it's mostly threats—directed towards people in government and people in public office. None of it's excusable, but those on the other side don't care why. They don't care. We do. On this side we do, and we recognise that a lot of these people who aren't the extremists are actually pretty normal people who are behaving in a very, very abnormal way—a way that they would not normally behave in. We need to look at what's causing that.

Some of the people I know in the Northern Territory who are going to these protests are not behaving violently or threatening violence, but they are behaving in a way they would not normally do. The reason they have done that is through absolute frustration and through their livelihoods being taken away from them by the government. That doesn't excuse what they're doing, but these people need help. We need to intervene before they get to the stage where they feel their only course of action is to threaten people. And we are doing that. We're making record investments in mental health. We recognise that a lot of the stresses that people have suffered over COVID have driven them to experience mental health issues, and we're investing in mental health to combat these issues.

Those on the other side don't care about mental health. They're not speaking out about it and they're not committing to investing in it. They don't care about helping people through one of the most difficult and extraordinary times that we'll probably ever live through. We need to acknowledge the impacts of this disease and the responses to the disease. Often, it's the state and territory Labor governments which are reacting extraordinarily in taking away people's lives and livelihoods. We need to acknowledge that and we need to provide help and support for these people who are experiencing mental illness as a result of the COVID responses.