Christopher Back (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Prime Minister, Senator Evans. Has the government received advice from Defence, Foreign Affairs and Australian intelligence agency sources that groups supportive of the Tamil Tigers are operative within Australia?

Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Can I first say to Senator Back that of course I would not be discussing what intelligence advice the government received from those agencies. I think that was the policy of the previous government and it is a well-established policy in terms of Australian government procedures. But there is no doubt we receive intelligence reporting on any potential activity of organisations that may be of concern, both internationally and in Australia. As you know, Senator, there has been action taken regarding fundraising efforts inside this country in support of the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka.

I will take on notice the detail, but my memory—I will correct this if I am wrong—is that the previous government made a change in about 2001 which banned the practice of fundraising and financing the Tamil Tigers in Australia. I will correct that immediately if I am wrong, but I think it was around 2001 that the previous government put that arrangement in place to try to combat concerns that the Tamil Tigers were being financed out of Australia and allegedly by the Tamil community in Australia. Similar activities have been taken by other nations where it was thought the Tamil diaspora might be funding the LTTE and some of their activities. That was certainly a concern of the previous government and arrangements were put in place to try to prevent that funding occurring and, as you know, through AUSTRAC and other measures we have sought to ensure that financing of such organisations does not occur. Obviously I cannot report on more recent intelligence response advice other than to say that we of course continually receive that advice from the relevant Australian agencies.

Christopher Back (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Can the government then assure the Australian people that Tamil guerrillas are not being given asylum as a result of the relaxed Labor policy which has laid out a very large welcome mat, with a new boat arriving nearly every day into Australian waters?

Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thought better of Senator Back than that he would take the low road. We have heard Senator Johnston talk about the threat of disease, we have heard Mr Tuckey talk about terrorist threats and today we have had the shadow spokesperson making claims about increases in Centrelink benefits—all untrue and all unfounded. I can assure senators that we have mandatory detention of offshore arrivals and we have processing on Christmas Island. These are exactly the same arrangements that were in place under the Howard government. As part of that processing, there are health, identity and security checks undertaken by Australian security agencies. They are rigorous and they are the same checks that have been applied for many years in Australia. They are all conducted on Christmas Island, and no-one is released onto the mainland with a visa without having had those checks successfully completed. (Time expired)

Christopher Back (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. Given that the Secretary of the Australian Federation of Tamil Associations has stated that former Tamil Tiger guerrillas are ‘definitely among the influx of boat people to arrive on our shores’, can the government state unequivocally that they have not, through their irresponsible border protection policies, let Tamil terrorists into Australia?

Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Again, this is an outrageous claim, a beat-up made to whip up fear. I think they can do better. I think they should be able to do better. This is a real public policy challenge which this government is working hard on meeting. I made it clear that exactly the same security, identity and health checks are conducted on Christmas Island as were conducted under the previous government. We seek the assurance of the relevant security agencies before decisions on visas are made. They use their best officers and their facilities to ensure that we protect the Australian community. Those checks are in place. They are rigorous, they are fulsome and they are the same security checks that were in place under the previous government. I urge the Liberal Party to think about where they are going with this. I know they are desperate and I know their polling is shocking, but they should just think about this. There is a need for public policy debate. They do not need to go down the low road. They can deal with this in a mature manner if they choose to. (Time expired)