Sarah Henderson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

I commend Senator Scarr for bringing this urgent motion to the Senate, because there is an urgent need for the Albanese Labor government to stand with our allies and investigate the listing of the extremist group Hizb ut-Tahrir as a terrorist organisation, particularly in light of the group's praise for the Hamas October 7 terrorist attack on innocent Israeli citizens—a horrific massacre—and the revelations, in more recent times, that Hizb ut-Tahrir members sought to radicalise students on our campuses and in fact infiltrated the pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of Sydney.

I very strongly say that I condemn Senator Walsh for reflecting on Senator Scarr as she did in this debate. It is wholly inappropriate and a complete falsehood to reflect on Senator Scarr's motivation in bringing this very important issue forward for debate. The fact that she questioned the coalition's, and particularly Senator Scarr's, support for our security and intelligence organisations is, frankly, disgraceful. Senator Scarr has a long history of being an incredible advocate not just for the rule of law but for our security and intelligence organisations. So for Senator Walsh to go the political attack as she did is completely inappropriate.

The terrorism listing rules in our country are very clear. If any group is involved in promoting, fostering, encouraging and even praising terrorist activity, that is grounds, under the Commonwealth Criminal Code, for such an organisation to be listed as a terrorist organisation. This debate is about highlighting the importance of this issue in the Australian Senate. How dare members opposite reflect on our intentions to ensure that this receives the highest priority from this government?

We have seen deeply disturbing revelations, particularly as exposed by Nick McKenzie and other reporters in the Age, in the Sydney Morning Herald and on 60 Minutes, about the infiltration of the encampment at the University of Sydney which, frankly, are shocking. Then, of course, we saw the University of Sydney, rather than stand strong, appease those protesters by entering into a most improper agreement with that group of students under circumstances where that should never have happened. Even worse, as we now know, the university was put on notice that members of this extremist group were on the campus from as early as 6 May, yet the university took no action.

On behalf of the coalition I have also called for the Albanese government to urgently investigate all revelations concerning the infiltration by this extremist group at the University of Sydney. It is very concerning that the Minister for Education, Mr Clare, has not raised concerns about this at all, just as he never condemned the encampment and never directly condemned the encouragement of children chanting 'intifada' at the encampment at the University of Sydney. So we continue to call for an urgent inquiry into how this happened. How could one of our most prestigious and oldest universities allow these extremists onto their campus and not take any action? We have asked urgent questions in relation to this.

Everyone on a university campus deserves to be safe, everyone in our country deserves to be safe, and we need to see that the government does not compromise our safety in any respect. This is a very important motion. Again, I commend Senator Scarr for bringing this to the Senate, and I call on the government to take this seriously.