Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I think we will hear a different set of questions after the Dunkley by-election on Saturday. There's nothing the Liberals like better than creating a scare campaign. That's what they do. When everything else fails, they resort to the tried and true 'Let's just scare people out in the community.'

There is no doubt that it is irresponsible of those on that side of the chamber to suggest that the highest priority of the Albanese Labor government, or any government, is not the safety of our people. It is irresponsible of those opposite to make that claim. We all know that it was the High Court's decision that was made and that no matter what colour the government of the day, whether the Liberals and Nationals were still in power or whether we were, the decision of the High Court would have been the same. The action that needs to be taken has been taken. We're doing everything we can to support law enforcement in this country to ensure there is close supervision of these detainees that are back in our community. We have done that. We've put in place four layers of protection: preventive detention, community safety supervision orders, electronic monitoring devices and curfews, and stringent visa conditions. We've done all of this.

Those opposite have tried to make some mileage out of this whole issue, so I just want to remind those opposite—and they know this; that's the interesting thing when they come into this chamber—that the government's preventive detention and community safety regime is modelled on no less than the Liberal-National coalition's own high-risk terrorist offenders scheme. That's what it's based on. It took more than three years for the first continuing detention order application to be lodged after the high-risk terrorist offenders regime was established. That is why we are paying full attention to the detail and making sure those applications are of the highest calibre, to ensure that they're not going to be rejected. That's why we're putting this in place.

But I want to take up the unfair criticism of the Australian Federal Police and our police services at a state level. To say that we have no sympathy, no concern, for the victims of any crime that has been committed, allegedly, by any of these former detainees is totally unfair and ungracious; it really is. But I want to place on record here today that not only is our government very supportive of them but I personally appreciate the Australian Federal Police, the Australian Border Force and our state and territory police forces for what they do to keep our citizens safe and secure every single day. And they work continuously to do that. We have invested a quarter of a billion dollars to arm our agencies of law enforcement, so we're actually putting the money where our mouth is. If that's not a clear demonstration of the commitment that we have, I don't know what will be. We've given our agencies the tools they need to enforce the strict laws we passed in this parliament last year. Our law enforcement agencies—the AFP and the Australian Border Force, along with their counterparts in the states and territories—work around the clock, as I said, to keep us safe.

Again, I want to reiterate that it is wrong to come into this place and try to assert that a Labor government, this Albanese Labor government, does not give No. 1 priority to keeping our community safe, because we do. The Australian people know that this decision was one taken by the High Court of Australia that could not be denied. (Time expired)