Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

At both ministerial and departmental level, the government is acting very strongly on these matters. Within the Department of Home Affairs, of course, one of the sub-agencies is ASIO, who have a primary role on this matter. ASIO is well aware of and well equipped to deal with the threat of foreign interference in our country. ASIO is monitoring for any foreign interference activity, particularly in light of recent events. The counter foreign interference taskforce, which is jointly led by ASIO and the Australian Federal Police, works to identify, investigate and disrupt foreign interference. That taskforce brings together the AFP, ASIO, AUSTRAC, the Australian Signals Directorate, the AGO and the ONI, all working on how we can counter foreign interference, which may be inflaming social tensions like that which you're describing. As you would understand, it wouldn't be appropriate to comment too much further on matters of national security, but in addition to this the government is receiving regular security briefings about the situation and taking appropriate action. (Time expired)