Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Attorney-General. Attorney, I draw your attention to the remarks of immigration minister Peter Dutton, who said it was 'a mistake' to allow Lebanese Muslim immigrants into Australia in the 1970s. He pointed to charges laid against a tiny number of second- and third—

Barry O'Sullivan (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Bring Sarah back!

Zed Seselja (ACT, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Social Services and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Start by telling the truth rather than verballing.

Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Do you have a question?

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Members on my right!

Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will just start that sentence again, Mr President, because there was a bit of interjection over there. The immigration minister pointed to charges laid against a tiny number of second- and third-generation Lebanese Australians—who, by the way, are Australians, Attorney—as proof for his ignorant and divisive claim. Do you accept that by making these remarks Mr Dutton has made the government's attempts to engage with Australian Muslims more difficult and, by doing so, has undermined the government's deradicalisation agenda?

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I do not believe he has done so at all. I speak as the minister who, in partnership with my junior minister, Mr Keenan, is responsible for the agencies that conduct Australia's deradicalisation agenda and its engagement with Muslim communities. But that is certainly not the case. The Australian government, the Attorney-General's Department, the Australian Federal Police and our national security agencies work in very close collaboration with Australia's Muslim leadership and Australia's Muslim communities to help in the joint endeavour in which we are both engaged: to defeat the siren song of terrorism recruiters and radical extremists who would lure their young on a path of self-destruction. The level of cooperation that we receive from the Muslim leadership of Australia is of a very high order and it is essential to our national security and counterterrorism efforts. The level of engagement is shared as well by state and territory police forces. Nothing that Mr Dutton has said has in any way compromised or prejudiced that engagement, and I have had no suggestion from any of my agencies or my department to that effect.

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator McKim, a supplementary question?

Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Now that you have denied that assertion, you are in direct contradiction of the comments of ASIO Director-General Duncan Lewis, who, in answer to a question I asked at Senate estimates last month, said:

… commentary … about members of the Islamic faith being unwelcome here … can make engagement with the Islamic community more difficult and, ipso facto, that makes our job—

ASIO's job of making Australians safe—

more difficult.

Is he wrong or are you wrong? (Time expired)

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Through you, Mr President—Senator McKim, if you are going to try these dodgy questions at least you should be good at it. I was sitting beside General Lewis during Senate estimates when he made that observation. General Lewis's observation is precisely right, and it is something that I have said both in estimates and in this chamber very often. He was not asked about Mr Dutton's remarks because Mr Dutton's remarks had not been made at the time of the Senate estimates hearing. I have met General Lewis in my office as recently as yesterday afternoon. No concerns have been raised with me either by him or by any other national security agency in relation to those remarks.

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator McKim, a final supplementary question?

Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes. I draw the Attorney-General's attention to the comment made by Prime Minister Turnbull in the House today when he said:

Terrorist groups seek to identify weakness and vulnerability and to drive and exploit fear and division. Actions and behaviours that target particular sections in society merely play into their hands.

Hasn't Mr Dutton played into the hands of terrorists just as the Prime Minister asserted today?

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No, Senator. Your conclusion, as is usual with you, Senator McKim, does not follow from the premise of your question. The position that the Prime Minister expressed in the national security statement reflects his views, it reflects my views, it reflects Mr Dutton's views and it reflects the very wise advice of our agencies. It is the policy that every minister of the Australian government adheres to and follows.