Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Attorney-General, Senator Cash. Can the Attorney-General advise the Senate how the Liberal-National government is equipping our law enforcement and security agencies with the resources they need to keep Australians safe from violent extremism?

Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Scarr for the question and I acknowledge his keen interest in keeping Australians safe and in national security. Without a doubt, a fundamental responsibility of the Morrison government is to keep Australians safe and to protect our way of life, our freedoms and our values. We may be in the middle of a global pandemic, but the threat of terrorism, as we know, remains in Australia, as it does in other places around the world. Since the national terrorism threat was raised to 'probable' in September 2014, there have been nine attacks and 21 major disruption operations in response to imminent attacks that were being planned on Australians. There have been 138 people charged as a result of 66 counterterrorism operations since 2014, and there are currently 34 people before the courts for terrorism related offences. To respond to these threats, the Morrison government has now passed 22 tranches of national security legislation. As I said, a fundamental responsibility of the Morrison government is to keep Australians safe. This legislation is helping provide security agencies with the tools and the legal framework necessary to protect Australia but also to combat new attempts and methods of violent extremism. We've legislated to better protect Australians in a number of ways, including by creating a presumption against bail and parole for persons who have demonstrated support for, or links to, terrorist activity, but to also enable the continued detention of high-risk terrorists. We take our responsibility to the Australian people seriously.

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Scarr, a supplementary question?

Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

With Australians spending more time than ever online during the COVID-19 pandemic, what steps has the government taken to fight violent extremism and the risk of terrorism online and keep Australians safe?

Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As we saw through Operation Ironside, organised crime and terrorist organisations are getting more sophisticated in their use of technology in their attempts to harm Australians. Over 95 per cent of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation's most dangerous counterterrorism targets use encrypted communications. The Morrison government has bolstered our security agencies with increased funding to continue current operations and also to expand operations to keep finding and fighting extremism online. We've also updated our legislative framework with such legislation as the Telecommunications and Other Legislation Amendment (Assistance and Access) Act 2018. This has provided the appropriate powers to our security agencies to capture criminals and to stop the spread of extremist material online as technology develops.

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Scarr, a final supplementary question?

Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

How is the increased investment from the government in our law enforcement and security agencies helping to keep Australia and Australians safe from emerging threats?

Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The digital world is now the new frontier that organised crime, terrorist and state-sponsored actors are using to threaten Australia and to threaten our way of life. As a result, the government is investing over $1.67 billion through our Cyber Security Strategy 2020 to position Australia to meet the evolving threats and also to improve capabilities to identify and disrupt cybersecurity threats. As a government we've also provided an additional $51.8 million to the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission to combat emerging threats from organised and transnational crime through improved collection, assessment and dissemination of intelligence for law enforcement agencies across Australia. These investments will help us to deal, from a connected and digital Australia, with emerging threats and at the same time protect our way of life.