Bob Baldwin (Paterson, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I start by offering my sincere condolences to those who have lost loved ones due to the senseless, extremist terrorist attacks, both abroad and at home, in recent times. It sickens me; it sickens my peace-loving community. These cowardly, extremist Daesh cult attacks are designed to attack the innocent and to instil fear across the community. There is no room in the world for Daesh death cults, no room for those extremists who, in reality, betray their own religious teachings.

I am neither a hawk nor a dove when it comes to military matters, but I firmly, without reservation, believe that when action needs to be taken, when all other avenues have been exhausted, it needs to be hard, swift and with the full might of all militaries involved to stop this senseless murder as soon as possible. While we have all been shocked by the Paris massacre, there have been more—too many more. All this radicalisation and terrorism is done in the name of a Daesh Muslim extremist cult's desire to rid the world of the infidels, yet many of the Muslims I know are not extremist. They abhor the actions that have been taken by these extremists.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, ISIL, has executed more than 3,000 people in Syria in the year to 29 June 2015, since it declared itself a caliphate. They include 1,787 civilians, of whom 74 were children, according to a media report in the Observatory. To label all Muslims as extremists is unjust, unfair. As I said, the ISIL Daesh cult are murdering their own Muslim people—they do not discriminate. A recent partial history of attacks includes: 23 September 2014 in Melbourne, when 18-year-old Numan Haider stabbed two counter-terrorism officers in Endeavour Hills, a suburb of Melbourne, in Victoria. He was then shot dead. Then, on the 15 December 2014, a self-proclaimed Muslim sheikh, Man Haron Monis, took 17 people hostage inside the Lindt chocolate cafe in Sydney. He forced hostages to hold up a jihadist black flag against a window of the cafe. In the early hours of 16 December, following the escape of several of the hostages, police breached the cafe and fatally shot Monis. Sadly, two hostages, Tori Johnson and Katrina Dawson, also died, while another four people, including a police officer, were injured in the incident. Then, on 7 January 2015 in Paris, two heavily armed gunmen entered the Paris offices of satirical news magazine Charlie Hebdo and killed 12 people, including two police officers, and injured 10, all for a satirical cartoon. Where is the mutual tolerance preached by some? And then five days later, on 12 January 2015, in another massacre linked to the Charlie Hebdo massacre, another five people were gunned down at a Jewish supermarket.

Australian terrorist Willie Brigitte was in contact with the perpetrators Cherif and Said Kouchi and Amedy Coulibaly whilst in Fleury-Merogis prison, where Brigitte is held. He is alleged to have been involved in the plotting of both of those attacks. Willie Brigitte and his wife were arrested in 2003 in Australia and deported to France for being part of a terrorist group planning attacks at Holsworthy Army Barracks and the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor.

Plotting and planning can cross borders with modern communication means, but it can also lead to the revealing of a plot. The planned Anzac Day 2015 terror plot was foiled. A teenage girl, Sevdet Besim, was romantically linked to a 14-year-old British boy planning an Anzac Day terror plot in Melbourne. The boy was sentenced to a life sentence with a minimum five-year term in jail by a UK court earlier this month for masterminding the plot to carry out the suicide attacks on police officers at the Melbourne Anzac Day parade. The girl exchanged thousands of messages over eight days with the teenage boy who planned the foiled attack. The court heard that Sevdet Besim became obsessed with the idea of suicide bombing and martyrdom. Both Sevdet Besim and her co-plotter Harun Causevic have been charged with conspiracy to commit acts done in preparation for, or planning of, terrorists acts and held without bail—and rightly so.

Then, on 26 June at the Tunisian tourist resort at Port El Kantaoui, north of Sousse, 38 people were mercilessly gunned down. Three months before that, at the Bardo National Museum, another 22 had been killed. Then, on the 2 October 2015, a radicalised 15-year-old Iranian-born, Iraqi-Kurdish boy, Farhad Khalil Mohammad Jabar, shot dead an innocent 58-year-old accountant, Curtis Cheng, who worked for the New South Wales Police Force, outside the Parramatta police headquarters. The boy then shot at special constables guarding the building. He was shot dead. NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione said:

We believe that his actions were politically motivated and therefore linked to terrorism.

On 31 October in Egypt, ISIL affiliated Wilayah Sayna militants claimed destruction of Metrojet flight 9268. It has been confirmed that the aircraft had been bombed. Two hundred and twenty four innocent people were killed. Then, on 12 November 2015 in Beirut, an ISIL suicide bomber detonated a bike loaded with explosives and, when onlookers gathered, another suicide bomber detonated himself on them, bringing the casualties to 43 dead and 240 wounded.

The next day, on 13 November in Paris, 130 innocent people were killed, plus the perpetrators, and 368 were injured, including 19-year-old Emma Parkinson, who was shot in the buttocks. A series of coordinated attacks began over about 35 minutes at six locations in central Paris. The first shooting occurred in a restaurant and a bar in the 10th arrondissement of Paris. There were more shootings and bombs detonated at Bataclan theatre in the 11th arrondissement during a rock concert. Approximately 100 hostages were taken and, sadly, 89 were killed. Other bombings took place outside the Stade de France in the suburb of Saint-Denis during a football match between France and Germany.

Also on 13 November, there were attacks targeting Shiites in Baghdad, including suicide bombers. The blasts killed 19 and left 33 wounded. ISIL has claimed responsibility for these attacks. Last week on 24 November in Tunisia, a bomb exploded on a bus packed with Tunisian presidential guards in the capital Tunis, killing 12 and injuring 17 people in an attack one source said was probably the work of a suicide bomber. Then, just days ago on 27 November, 21 people were killed after a suicide bomber blew himself up in the crowds at a Shia Muslim procession near the northern Nigerian city of Kano.

In Australia we expect those who choose to live here to support the freedoms of the Australian way of life. It is of concern that some choose not to, and I believe that there is no place for them here in Australia. To preach hatred and to insight people to acts of violence and terrorism is not Australian and it should not occur on our soil.

I, like many, was concerned following the Paris attacks when the Grand Mufti of Australia, Dr Ibrahim Abu Mohamed, dismissed antiterror strategies as ineffective, while saying the focus should be on racism, Islamophobia, foreign policies and military intervention. How wrong he is! He later corrected his statement when he told media he has always consistently and unequivocally condemned all forms of terrorist violence. Many other Australian Islamic organisations were quick to condemn the ISIL attacks and distance moderate Muslims from being responsible. They condemned the attacks—and I would point out that many of those who were victims in Paris were also Muslims.

We as a nation are a tolerant, welcoming people. When we accept people into Australia, we expect them to live by our country's laws and respect fellow Australians. There is no room in Australia for sharia law. The displays of terrorism related activities and the incitement of others is not acceptable by any means. Race riots are unforgivable. There is no place in Australia for that.

I can accept the preachings by many Muslim religious leaders crying out for tolerance. But tolerance is a two-way street. I, like many of my constituents, am rightly offended by the demand by some Muslim clerics that any religious festival or prayer is un-Australian because it may offend them. It is offensive to me that I would have to sacrifice what I believe in through my faith just to appease others. I have no issue with Muslims celebrating their festivals and their religious days, but to exclude what I and many believe in because it offends them is not tolerance. Stopping the celebration of Christmas and Easter, the two most holy days of our Christian calendar, is not tolerance. It is discrimination.

As I said, tolerance is a two-way street. There is room in Australia for all. This is Australia and, as others have often quoted, if you do not like Australia and all it has to offer, then do not come, do not stay, go back to where you came from. Do not bring your battles to my homeland. If you want to participate in religious wars and vendettas from where you came, then go back to where you came from.

I was proud the speak on the Australian Citizenship Amendment (Allegiance to Australia) Bill 2015, which will strip the citizenship of dual nationals who fight against Australia in the name of terrorism. In my eyes, it is a treason against my nation. If you want to abide by our laws and partake in all the freedoms and the benefits of our great democracy, then you are welcome. But do not come to Australia to change it to what you have escaped. Do not use Australia as your safe haven whilst fighting for terrorism overseas.

At the weekend I was at Nelson Bay. I was approached by a young man asking whether he will need to join the army and go to war to fight terrorism to protect his Australia. This is typical of how Australians are viewing the current situation. Community concern is rising and rightly so with the increasing spate of terrorism attacks and number of people—over 400—currently being investigated in Australia for involvement in terrorism activities.

I also personally and firmly believe that if my home, Australia, was being attacked and taken over by some Islamic State terrorist group I would stay to fight, not flee. I would expect the same of my sons, as indeed most Australians would of theirs. What I have noticed, as have many of my constituents, is that a large number of the refugees fleeing Syria, Iraq and other war-torn countries seem to be predominantly males between 18 and 45. I have to ask the question on behalf of my constituents: why are they not staying and training to defend their land, their lifestyle and their rights? I have no problem with and totally support women, children and the elderly being removed from danger, but it is a bit rich to expect others from foreign countries to lay down their lives for you if you are not prepared to stand and fight.

One of my concerns is also the proper vetting of those fleeing and seeking refuge to make sure that they are not sleepers seeking to infiltrate and plan and plot terrorism activities in Australia as is alleged to have happened in Paris. There is still inconclusive evidence that the passport of a terrorist found at the site of the Paris massacre was fake alleging the cowardly assassin was a fleeing refugee. The media report in RTsaid:

The mastermind of the November 13 terrorist attacks in Paris was planning more attacks targeting Jews, schools and transport system, media reports say. He also mocked EU's open border policy that allowed him to enter as a refugee.

Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a Belgian citizen of Moroccan origin and Islamic State extremist who was behind the massacre in a concert hall and near the stadium in Paris, told his cousin, Hasna Ait Boulahcen, "they would do worse (damage) in districts close to the Jews and would disrupt transport and schools," according to a witness statement cited by the French Valeurs Actuelles weekly magazine.

Abaaoud approached his cousin two days after the attacks and asked to hide him, while he was planning new terrorist acts. He also promised to give Boulahcen €5,000 … so that she could buy two suits and two pairs of shoes for him and his accomplice, who has not been identified yet.

The terrorists planned to use the suits to blend into the crowd and "look the part" during a planned attack on Paris' commercial district La Defense, French media reports.

Paris prosecutor Francois Molins confirmed that the extremists indeed plotted an attack on La Defense.

According to a confidential police witness statement leaked to Valeurs Actuelles this week, Abaaoud also mocked the European open-border Schengen system by boasting about freely and easily slipping into Europe with refugees and living for two months in France unnoticed.

Abaaoud claimed he exploited the ongoing migrant crisis and entered Europe from Syria through Greece disguised as a refugee. He also described France as "zero," apparently referring to the authorities' inability to detect him, Valeurs Actuelles reports citing the witness statement.

It concerns me that people are taking advantage of nations' generosity, seeking to destroy and disrupt the way of life of the innocent. All that can be done must be done. We need to stamp out these extreme terrorism acts now, before it is too late.

See this speech in context