Lucy Wicks (Robertson, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise in strong support of the Australian Citizenship Amendment (Allegiance to Australia) Bill 2015. This bill is significant and timely in this government's approach to our national security and is part of our response to global terror threats. In particular, as we have been hearing on both sides of the House in this debate, the government's response includes amending the Australian Citizenship Act 2007. This aims to broaden powers in order to strip the citizenship of those engaged in terrorism, targeting those who are considered a serious threat to Australia without rendering them stateless. I will speak about this in more detail shortly.

But first I would like to discuss how this bill reflects the firm views of people in my electorate on the Central Coast. By standing in support of this legislation, I want to say to people on the Central Coast that the coalition government is taking your safety and your security seriously—for you, your family and your community. We want to ensure the community of Australian citizens, including the many smaller communities and suburbs that we love so much on the Central Coast, is made up of people whose loyalty and allegiance is to Australia. By doing this, it is important to emphasise that this bill enhances, not detracts from, the meaning of citizenship.

Citizenship is something that we all hold dear; it is something to be treasured. But, in discussing this with my community, I recognise that it is something that is not always articulated, because the meaning of citizenship is something that is assumed by most of us to be self-evident. It is about the values, principles and sense of pride in what it means to be Australian, but, more than this, citizenship involves an inherent allegiance to Australia. Whether we were born here or choose to make Australia our home, Australian citizenship involves a commitment to our nation, its people, its democratic rights and its privileges.

Yet, in this time of heightened concerns about our security, we are also confronted with some very real threats sprouting from a small number of people who are Australian citizens yet shun the values, principles and allegiances espoused by the acceptance of citizenship. That is why I endorse the intention behind this bill, which modernises provisions while also recognising the inherent values of citizenship, somewhat akin to a covenant that we enter into, that we vow to uphold.

I would like to acknowledge the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection for his important work on this legislation. In the minister's second reading speech, he said some words that resonated with me and that are helpful in defining our position. The minister said:

The intention of the changes is the protection of the community and the upholding of its values, rather than punishing people for terrorist or hostile acts.

As the minister goes on to say:

Allegiance is a duty owed by all citizens to their sovereign or state. A citizen's duty of allegiance to Australia is not created by the Citizenship Act, but it is recognised by it.

You can see this in action in my electorate, at one of our regular citizenship ceremonies held at Gosford City Council chambers. These are some of my favourite events and I attend as often as I can. Together, we gather with people from all different backgrounds, faiths and histories, who come together in Gosford on the Central Coast to take an oath to Australia and all that it represents. We hear the oath of allegiance, and every time I share this moment there is a real sense of occasion and importance. Our new citizens speak of pledging loyalty to Australia and its peoples, whose democratic beliefs they share, whose rights and liberties they will respect and whose laws they will uphold and obey. Then, at the end of the ceremony, of course, we also get to reaffirm the oath as well. Our new citizens, our new Aussies, are each presented with a flag and a small Australian native plant, which is a small symbol that reflects the rich history and culture of Australia, forged over thousands of years.

Another one of the aspects about these ceremonies that I love is that so many members of our local community come to support them. Family members and loved ones are there in support, of course, but so too are various representatives of our community—Rotary members, school principals, chamber of commerce presidents, RSL representatives, church leaders and many, many others. Together, we are able to draw the connection of what citizenship defines, reflects and stands for in our community.

It is not just in these ceremonies that my community have been asking themselves about what it means to be a citizen. We have been hearing these conversations and these questions in the daily heartbeat of life on the Central Coast. This is in part no doubt, because of some of the atrocities that we have seen abroad and, unfortunately and tragically, closer to home. That is why we invited to our electorate the government's Special Envoy for Citizenship and Community Engagement, the member for Berowra, Philip Ruddock.

We held a fantastic and important forum at the Gosford Golf Club recently, where a roomful of concerned local residents engaged in a very important discussion on what citizenship means and also on some of the more complex issues our world faces today. We also held a smaller roundtable luncheon at Gosford RSL Club with some church and community leaders to discuss these important matters. It was a very good day of discussion and engagement and an excellent opportunity to recognise that, while we are proud of having survived and thrived as a nation following the cruelty of world wars, depression, drought and flood, there are in 2015 fresh and pervading challenges we must adapt to and address.

I must say that in these forums there was almost universal support for the concept of the loss of citizenship for dual citizens engaging in terrorist activities. This was built on a discussion about how we as a nation can more clearly articulate and cultivate the shared values of citizenship for our next generation and beyond. In the forum, we grappled with the notion that the world is more closely connected than ever before, with ease of travel and the connections now made possible by technology just two obvious examples.

In answering these questions today, I think it is appropriate that we look at some of the more specific mechanisms in this legislation. One fundamental of this bill is to recognise that allegiance to Australia is a duty owed by all citizens within the state and recognised in law by the Citizenship Act. This bill seeks to propose distinct mechanisms for automatic loss of citizenship. The first is a new provision where a person renounces their citizenship if they act inconsistently and in conflict with their allegiance to Australia because they have engaged in certain terrorist conduct. This can include engaging in international terrorist activities using explosive or lethal devices; engaging in a terrorist attack; providing or receiving training connected with preparation for, engagement in or assistance in a terrorist act; directing the activities of a terrorist organisation; recruiting for a terrorist organisation; or financing terrorism. The bill also expands on the current 'loss of citizenship provision' for a person fighting in the armed forces of a country at war with Australia. This holds that a person ceases to be recognised as a citizen if they fight for, or are effectively in the service of, a declared terrorist organisation overseas. The third new provision says that a person ceases to be an Australian citizen if the person is convicted of a specified terrorism offence as prescribed in the Criminal Code.

I wish to underline that the operation of the bill will not render a person stateless. The bill only applies to those who have citizenship not only in Australia but also in another country. This is in line with and upholds Australia's international legal obligations. The operation of the bill will not apply to children if they are under 10 years of age, and the conduct provisions outlined in the bill will not apply to children if they are under 14 years of age. Judicial review is also available to persons who are affected by the bill, leading to loss of citizenship.

It is important to note that we are not the only Western country to amend citizenship legislation with the growing threat of global terrorism. In the United Kingdom, legislation has been passed which expands the government's power to revoke the citizenship of a naturalised person. A person in the United Kingdom can now be deprived of citizenship if the Home Secretary is satisfied they meet the new requirements. This, as well as other global examples, reflects the context in which we are having this debate.

Unfortunately, in 2015 and in the wake of terrorist attacks taking place around the world, the amendments outlined in this bill are crucial and necessary. Global terrorism has the potential to become local terrorism, and we must act to prevent this and ensure our safety is paramount. A recent review into Australia's counter-terrorism machinery found that the terrorist threat in Australia is rising in three distinct ways. Firstly, the number of Australians choosing to join known extremist groups overseas is increasing. Secondly, the number of known sympathisers and supporters of extremists and extremist groups is rising. And, thirdly, there are more potential terrorists locally in Australia. This requires a detailed, coordinated national security approach, and I recognise that our Prime Minister will shortly update the House on what the government is doing in this area. I would like to end on a personal note of reflection.

I remain shocked at the brutal and horrific events that unfolded in Paris on Friday, 13 November, when 130 citizens of France and 18 other countries were brutally murdered and many more were injured, in what was a coordinated attack from ISIL involving eight killers across six locations. This was indeed an attack on all humanity, on our freedom to gather and to celebrate, on our freedom to share time with our family and friends, on our freedom to walk our streets without fear.

I express my deepest sympathy to the people of France. And with a heavy heart I also extend my thoughts and prayers to those impacted by suicide bombings in Beirut, Ankara, Tunisia and Nigeria. Add to this the murder of hundreds of innocent civilians in a Russian airliner flying over the Sinai, the attack of a hotel in Mali, and ongoing extremist violence and killings in the Middle East and South Asia, and I find myself somewhat lost for words, unable to comprehend how a group of people could even begin to contemplate such barbaric acts.

The coalition government and its allies are united in our condemnation of these acts of terrorism and our commitment to defeating those who carry out these terrorist acts. As the member for Robertson on the Central Coast, may I reaffirm the commitment of the coalition government to do everything possible to keep people safe at home and, so far as possible, abroad. For this reason, I stand in very strong support of the measures outlined in this legislation. I commend the bill to the House.

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