Jason Wood (La Trobe, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I rise to speak on community protection intervention orders. Sadly, in Australia every single day I hear from police and from the wider community that young people are being groomed and influenced by radical preachers or those seeking to draw them down dark paths to commit acts of terrorism. We all know the story of Farhad Khalil Mohammad Jabar, the 15-year-old boy who shot and killed Curtis Cheng outside a New South Wales police station. In the days leading up to the shooting, police reported increased chatter about a potential attack occurring. Close to La Trobe, my electorate, we know the story of Abdul Numan Haider, who had a history of going around and preaching for IS. This included taking an IS flag to the Dandenong shopping centre. Two police officers were stabbed outside the Endeavour Hills police station, and Numan Haider was shot by those police. We also recall Jake Bilardi, who went overseas and became a suicide bomber. Police have also stopped many other potential attacks—the Mother's Day attack, the Anzac Day attack, an attack at Federation Square in Melbourne.

These are incredibly gruesome and confronting stories. They are things that the public, rightly, is in fear about and needs the government to act upon. But we need to use our policing mechanisms to prevent them from happening in the first place, rather than having to deal with the horrible consequences. That is why it is important to look at the initial influencing stages of radicalisation. Whether those be online, meeting extremists or visiting propaganda sites, sadly, young people are being converted.

Federally, the coalition government has put in place control orders, new targeted physical searches, telecommunication interceptions and surveillance device regimes to help monitor those subject to control orders. Control orders are a complex process, though, and it takes a Supreme Court judge to issue those orders. Also, I must congratulate the Prime Minister for his use of the term 'advocating' in regard to terrorism, rather than using the word 'incitement', which involves directly going and encouraging terrorist-related activity. Advocating is what I would call a slow grooming process where they work online to influence young people. AFP Commissioner Andrew Colvin said in The Australian recently:

We continue to work closely with the digital industry to identify and take down violent extremist material. I also believe there is a greater awareness in our community of what is appropriate and what isn't, in terms of online commentary …

This brings me to issues I have raised before: the need to stop people getting involved in terrorism in the first place, any gap that may prevent this need being met, and giving police a tool through which to act. This tool is called a community protection intervention order. It works in a very similar way to a family violence order. This means that it has a low threshold. If police were concerned that a person was being radicalised, it would be possible to go to a magistrate and make an order preventing the person from accessing material. This material could be on radical websites. Some people pretty much go and radicalise themselves. This is very important because the new legislation I spoke about earlier will stop that happening in Australia. They can also talk to people overseas. I have also heard before of people who have perhaps been kicked out of a moderate mosque and who then go and hang around outside mosques trying to influence young people to be radicalised. It is important to note, too, that with a community protection intervention order we can actually target those who are trying to radicalise others.

This is something I have raised before. There is a great need for it. This is a very, very important tool, which police require right across the country. I know that it was raised with the state Labor government back in 2015, when the state Labor spokesman said to the Herald Sun journalist Annika Smethurst:

There have been initial discussions between Victoria Police and the Department of Justice and Regulation on Victoria Police’s proposal regarding Community Protection Intervention Orders.

Sadly, we have heard nothing. This is something that police need. The police need a tool to stop young people from being radicalised, from potentially going on the internet every night and talking to others from overseas and reading material which may influence them—potentially having deradicalisation programs which they attend or hanging out with others with similar views. This is something vitally needed by the police. We need it right now and right across the nation