Anthony Byrne (Holt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will do so. I hope that my presentation has been educative for the minister concerned but, as I said quite clearly, the stakes are very high—not just outlined by the Labor opposition but by experts like Robert Pape. My question to the minister is this: can the minister say why it is acceptable that 15 per cent of vessels that come into this country, that berth in this country, do not detail the contents of their crew or their cargoes? Does the minister say that it is acceptable that only 10 per cent of ships that enter Australian ports are X-rayed when in Hong Kong at the present time they are experimenting with 100 per cent X-ray and the Americans are looking at the same thing again? It is quite interesting that, whilst we subject ourselves to an increased terrorism threat as a consequence of our involvement with our allies, we will not implement the same protective security measures to protect our population.

Frankly, Minister, I do not see how you can defend this. Whilst I support the provisions in this bill and strongly support the amendment that the Labor Party has put forward, I would ask the minister, in the national interest, in the interests of the security of Australia, to stop playing petty politics and actually adopt Labor’s recommendations to make our country safer and to make our country securer.

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