Tony Smith (Casey, Liberal Party, Deputy Chairman , Coalition Policy Development Committee) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the motion moved by the Leader of the Opposition. As we discuss this tonight, it is natural for us to think back and reflect on the history of the Bali bombings and September 11. If we go back a bit further, on 23 February 1998 an obscure organisation headed by an even more obscure individual published an open manifesto. The declaration featured a list of signatories whose names would soon emerge from anonymity to infamy. The leader of the pack was the late and unlamented Osama bin Laden. The manifesto's signatories also included Ayman al-Zawahari, who moved up to head the organisation once bin Laden was consigned to the depths of the Indian Ocean following his demise at the hands of US Navy SEALs. Entitled Jihad against the Jews and the crusaders, this document was published by a movement calling itself the World Islamic Front. Over the last decade-plus we have come to know this crew of mass-murdering terrorists by another name: al Qaeda.

While bin Laden is rightly condemned for his homicidal barbarism, he could not be faulted on his awful clarify. His 1998 manifesto made his agenda perfectly clear by declaring:

… in compliance with God's order, we issue the following fatwa to all Muslims:

The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies—civilians and military—is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it …

Within months, bin Laden's terrorist foot soldiers put words into practice, killing over 200 people by blowing up three embassies in Africa that September.

Throughout the 15 years that have followed, as we know, thousands of innocents have been slaughtered by al Qaeda in New York office buildings, Bali nightclubs, London subways, Madrid commuter railcars, Jakarta hotels, Mumbai hospitals and a synagogue in Ghriba. That tragic roll of terror victims includes over 100 Australian names. Yet our presence on al Qaeda's target list should come as no surprise. After all, Australia exemplifies all of the things jihadi Islam so dearly loves to hate: religious tolerance, gender equality, freedom of expression and government by the ballot, not the bullet. It only stands to reason that a movement seeking to impose a resurrected Caliphate upon the world does not look kindly upon free minds and free markets.

But it was not just our democratic values that aroused the ire of Osama bin Laden; it was our democratic actions as well. In 1999, Australia intervened militarily in East Timor, playing a leading role in the birth of Timor Leste as a free and independent nation. To al Qaeda, this was an unforgiveable sin. Clear evidence to that effect emerged in November 2001 when the BBC published a new bin Laden manifesto. There, amidst the long laundry list of jihadi complaints, was a paragraph denouncing 'crusader Australian forces … landed to separate East Timor, which is part of the Islamic World.' The bombing attacks in Bali that claimed 88 Australian lives took place less than a year later. The liberation of Timor Leste continued. Bin Laden was part of a war annihilation in the true sense of the word.

We have for a long period of time been at war with a totalitarian ideology that believes that the destruction of our civilisation is a prerequisite for the construction of theirs.

This is the same totalitarian ideology that last month motivated Taliban assassins to shoot a 14-year-old Pakistani schoolgirl in the head for the crime of advocating female education. This war was started by jihadi Islam but must be ended by us because the consequences of defeat are too horrible to contemplate.

In this war, Australians who have been killed or wounded by enemy action deserve to be treated as well as possible. That treatment includes support for the innocent non-combatants who have fallen victim abroad to acts of terrorism, and for their families.

The Leader of the Opposition was advocating for this cause even before he was Leader of the Opposition. In November 2009 he introduced a private member's bill to provide this sorely needed financial assistance. In his second reading speech he gave a telling description of precisely what was at stake and why, but I will not recount it again tonight.

At the time, the Member for Warringah pointed out the difference between the level of support available to those who suffer from criminal violence at home, and he has done so again tonight. The legislation he has pushed for is aimed at rectifying that disparity. He outlined how it took a long period of time for this to get movement in this parliament, and he also candidly outlined his efforts in 2007, when we were in government.

The legislation to date has not gone far enough, as far as concerns those important declarations that would relate back to the day before September 11. It has the capacity to deal with future atrocities, but not the past, and it does not have the capacity to cover those Australians who have fallen victim to jihadi war against Australia and the West since 11 September 2001.

The Attorney-General has attempted to justify the government's unwillingness by arguing that 'retrospective legislation is not appropriate here'. This has been addressed by those opposite again tonight. I say a number of things about this. With the history I have just recounted, the time frame is very specific for Australia. If there were ever a case for retrospective legislation it is here. The Leader of the Opposition has been careful to limit the application both in time and in scope, back to 10 September 2001. Its fiscal impact is finite.

Another philosophical objection to retrospective legislation derives from the unfairness of imposing penalties after the fact. I have certainly argued against retrospective legislation in this parliament. But this legislation does no such thing. It does not contain punitive provisions, it bestows a benefit to a targeted group of people over a defined period of time.

I call on the government to reconsider its opposition to this today and to consider doing what this parliament feels is the right thing to do. And I say: if not here, where? Certainly, the innocent Australians who suffered in life and limb at the murderous hands of al-Qaeda are deserving of our positive consideration of this motion, here and now.

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