Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Assistant Minister to the Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

The Australian Citizenship Amendment (Allegiance to Australia) Bill 2015 is very important in the context of making our country safe—making our country safer—and ensuring that it is the safest place in which to live. Certainly the Review of Australia's Counter-Terrorism Machinery found that the terrorist threat in Australia is, worryingly, increasing. The review mentions specifically that the number of Australians joining extremist groups overseas is on the rise. It found that the number of known sympathisers and supporters of extremists is also, sadly, disturbingly, increasing. It also found that the number of potential terrorists is rising, and we have seen in recent days just how dreadful people who wish to do bad to those of goodwill are causing their dreadful terrorism acts across the world in Beirut, in Paris and in other places. We must make sure that our first priority of government is to make our nation safer, and that is what I believe, and the government believes, that this particular amendment is achieving.

Our security agencies are presently managing more than 400 high-priority counter-terrorism investigations. This number has more than doubled since 2014. That is a sad state of affairs and it is one that obviously we, as a government and as a parliament, need to act upon, and that is what we are doing with this amendment. Since September last year, when the National Terrorism Public Alert Level was raised to high—and it has not been any lower since—26 people have been charged as a result of 10 counter-terrorism operations. Unbelievably, that is more than one-third of terrorism-related charges since 2001, 14 years ago. Around 110 Australians are currently fighting or engaged with terrorist groups in Syria and Northern Iraq. That angers me because, as the federal member for Riverina, my hometown is Wagga Wagga, and just south-west of Wagga Wagga is the Army Recruit Training Centre at Kapooka. The Blamey Barracks there turn out each and every one of the recruits, some young and some not so young, men and women, the best and bravest, who receive their basic training, undergo a rigorous assessment and march out of Kapooka to join that long tradition of khaki—that long line which has stretched from the Anzac tradition, way back at Gallipoli, forward to today. It angers me to think that those good people—who are willing to serve their country, who are willing to be put in harm's way and who are willing to risk their lives—may well be sent overseas, as many of them are, and that they may come up against fellow citizens carrying dual citizenship, who do not deserve to be called Australians. Those who are holding dual citizenship and who want to fight against our brave soldiers, our brave Air Force personnel and our wonderful sailors in the Navy do not deserve to be called Australian if they want to take up arms against their fellow citizens. You only have to read the affirmation of allegiance at any citizenship ceremony, where the words are stated:

From this time forward—

in some cases 'under God' is submitted—

I pledge my loyalty to Australia and its people, whose democratic beliefs I share, whose rights and liberties I respect, and whose laws I will uphold and obey.

Taking up arms against your fellow men and women, who are from your own nation, is not respecting Australia's democratic beliefs; it is not upholding this great nation's laws.

I want to read in the parliament a speech given by Arora Kiddle from Yenda Public School. She was just 10 years of age when she presented this speech in a multicultural competition in 2014. I visited the school last year and I heard this fine young lady read this speech to her school. It is entitled, What makes a community?I think if a 10-year-old girl can understand what makes a community, particularly a multicultural community such as Yenda, then most other people should be able to. And anybody who wants to criticise this particular bill should get it as well—that we are a very multicultural nation; we are a very welcoming country. But we do not deserve to be a safe haven for people who come under dual citizenship and wish to do their fellow citizens harm. Yenda is a little town with a population of just over 1,500 people, according to the 2011 census, and it is 16 kilometres east of Griffith. In March 2012 it was flooded by Mirrool Creek, and I say that because, in the context of Arora's speech, that is necessary to know. Arora, in her wonderful and eloquent words, said this:

What makes a community?

We all know that the answer to this question is people: their relationships, their diversity and the spaces that they share.

My community is just like this. It has a post office, tennis courts, a football team, an awesome soccer club, a (not so) super market, a park, two schools, a pizza shop and a couple of churches (take your pick), a busy hairdresser and, as Dad reminds me, a pub! Not to mention all the nice people. Like Peter at the servo, he's a second generation Italian migrant. Mum asks him about the weather and gardening. There's Tappy the Butcher. He gives us lollipops and mum always gets stuck talking to him for ages! There is George our Egyptian chemist. He gives us chocolate if we're lucky. He and mum love to chat. Oh and there's the new bloke at the shop, he's Indian. I think he's nice. Mum is trying to talk him into getting takeaway Indian food in the shop on Friday nights because by the time we get home from school (after all that talking) she doesn't feel like cooking dinner! These people are all an important part of our community, but there is something deeper too. A feeling that can only be described with a story. May I tell you a story?

Once upon a time, not so long ago, there was a little town in the middle of nowhere. Actually to be more accurate it was slightly to the left of the middle of nowhere. And this town was not so different from any small town. But in this little town something incredibly unusual happened …You see one night it rained. And it rained hard. The rain thumped the towns roofs all through the night and made birds' nests into swimming pools. It flooded the yards and streets and fish actually swam up and down the roads the next day. It was kind of magical that day, but the next day things changed. We were ordered to evacuate! And our town went underwater for the next three days in a giant flood.

This is where our story becomes a little sad. The flood destroyed lots of possessions, it severely damaged buildings and it even drowned many pets. It meant that our little community had to live in emergency accommodation while their houses were being fixed. This took a long time. For my house over a year, and for others even longer. Some houses were demolished altogether. Yenda became a ghost town!

But something else happened too. Our community grew closer. Here we were, no longer in our homes, or our schools, not eating our local pizza, but we were still a community.

Whenever we crossed each other's paths at the Emergency Centre, outside the temporary school, or anywhere else, we stopped to talk to one another. Our parents shared stories, cried together, and helped one another. Us kids played—as usual. We all got to know each other a little bit more as we shared each other's lives in ways that we would not have done otherwise.

We were a townspeople—without a town. But we were still a community.

You see, what makes a community is not simply a gathering of buildings that people live and work in. That's just bricks, blocks and mortar.

A community is a group of people with a shared experience and who help one another when it's needed, who share in each others ups and downs

A community is its people. Each and every one of them.

If little Arora Kiddle from Yenda Public School, aged 10, can get it, then so should all of us. We should all understand what a community is, what multiculturalism is.

There is no greater example of multiculturalism than the Riverina. In Griffith, when South Sudan became an independent nation, the community flew 99 flags, and I was asked to provide a flag for their Australia Day ceremony because they wanted to fly the flag of the new nation, which meant that there were 100 flags flown at the Griffith Australia Day ceremony. Griffith is the multicultural cradle of Australia. The Griffith community has people from all corners of the world as well as a large Indigenous population, but they get on remarkably well. It is a melting pot of multiculturalism. The community is remarkable, and I invite the member for Chifley, who is in the chamber, if he has nothing better to do one day, to come out to experience the wonderful community that is Griffith, because it is remarkable. They get on so well. They are very resilient.

Mr Husic interjecting—

What was that?

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