David Fawcett (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Attorney-General, Senator Brandis. Can the Attorney-General update the Senate on actions the government has taken to strengthen our nation's security?

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

Thank you, Senator Fawcett. I acknowledge your deep and longstanding interest in this area. I can inform you that today the government has secured the passage of yet another significant piece of national security legislation, as Senator Wong herself remarked in her speech on the second reading of the Criminal Code Amendment (High Risk Terrorist Offenders) Bill—the sixth major instalment of national security legislation since September 2014. The government has delivered the most significant program of reform of our national security in the past two years or so, since the passage of the Intelligence Services Act way back in 2001. Those reforms have been in response to the unprecedented shift in our national terrorism threat environment following ISIL's declaration of a caliphate on 29 June 2014.

Honourable senators will recall that on 12 September 2014 the national terrorism level was elevated on the advice of our national security agencies, and the threat level has remained since that time at the equivalent of probable, which means that a terrorism event in Australia continues to be assessed as likely. Since the threat level was raised Australia has experienced four terror related attacks, three of them lethal and one involving serious injury to an innocent man. However, importantly, during the same period our agencies and the police have disrupted 11 imminent terrorist attacks on Australian soil against innocent Australians. Those disruptions are testament to the professionalism and skill of the law enforcement and policing agencies and the fact that this government gave them the powers they needed to keep our community safe.

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

Senator Fawcett, a supplementary question.

David Fawcett (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Could the Attorney-General explained to the Senate the importance of a strong, consistent approach to national security?

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

It has been the longstanding position on both sides of the parliament to maintain bipartisanship on national security, and by and large, I should say, that bipartisan posture has been maintained in this parliament and the last, with the Labor Party supporting the six instalments of national security legislation to which I have referred. Unfortunately it is not an unmixed record, because in recent weeks we have seen a breakdown of bipartisanship on important aspects of our national security, as Mr Shorten, under pressure from the Left, puts his own political survival ahead of the interests of the Australian people. We are seeing the breakdown of bipartisanship in relation to the new measures that Mr Dutton announced to keep our borders safe, and we have seen confusion in the Labor Party's position on the critical issue of the American alliance, with an op-ed by Senator Wong, the foreign affairs spokesman— (Time expired)

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

Senator Fawcett, a final supplementary question.

David Fawcett (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the minister aware of any threats to this strong and consistent approach to national security?

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

I was in the process of telling you about them, Senator Fawcett—through you, Mr President. Senator Wong, in an op-ed in the Fairfax papers some two weeks ago, for the first time that I can recall by the Australian Labor Party, called into question the nature of our relationship with the United States of America and called the election of President Trump 'a change point'.

It has historically always been the position of the Australian Labor Party that the relationship endures unaffected by whether it be a Democrat or a Republican administration and unaffected by the identity of the President of the United States. Yet, Senator Wong, you settle upon the election of a candidate not to your liking as the President of the United States to announce a change point in the relationship between Australia and the United States of America, our most important strategic partner. (Time expired)