House debates

Thursday, 30 October 2014

Bills

Counter-Terrorism Legislation Amendment (Foreign Fighters) Bill 2014; Consideration in Detail

12:37 pm

Photo of Adam BandtAdam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move amendments (1) to (4) on sheet ABCTLAFF2, standing in my name, together:

(1) Schedule 1, item 110, page 91 (lines 10 to 13), omit paragraph 119.7(2)(a), substitute:

  (a) the person publishes an advertisement in Australia; and

(2) Schedule 1, item 110, page 91 (line 15), omit "or item of news".

(3) Schedule 1, item 110, page 91 (lines 20 to 23), omit paragraph 119.7(3)(a), substitute:

  (a) the person publishes an advertisement in Australia; and

(4) Schedule 1, item 110, page 91 (line 24), omit "or item of news".

We need to have an open discussion in this country about why people are radicalising, because it is a threat to our safety. One of the first things we need to do is understand what tactics are being used by those who would do us harm and allow that to be reported and discussed so that we can stop it, so that every family who is worried that their child may be lured to go overseas and join the kind of terrorists that we are seeing at the moment knows what to look out for. Collectively, as a society, we need to have a discussion about what we need to do to ensure that Australia is a place where everyone feels that they have a place and where no-one wishes to do us harm.

But there is a broader principle here: we have a right to know what is going on and to discuss it. The Herald Sun this morning made clear in its editorial—not usually a paper that is known to line up with the Greens—that what is at stake is a question of freedom of the press, of the Australian right to know and doing what we should to ensure that all Australians are safer. It said:

The unarguable right of Australians to know what is done in their name is being torn down by security laws being rushed through Parliament.

The laws that make it a criminal offence to publish what are loosely called 'news items' about the way terror suspects are recruited is only one arm of an arsenal of restrictive legislation affecting the media.

But it is the public who are to be denied what they should be told. The community at large should know how young men are radicalised. Parents have every right to know how their sons are turned into willing recruits for Islamic State terrorism. They should be made aware of the pitfalls awaiting them, whether on the internet with its hate preachers, or in associating with the shadowy groups who will lead them astray.

That is why I am moving amendments that will continue to make it an offence in this bill that is obviously going to pass this parliament to publish recruitment advertisements but will remove the reference to news items so that we can have legitimate discussion in this country about what is going on in this country without risking sending journalists to jail.

The first set of security bills that went through this parliament in an unseemly rush with Labor and Liberal agreement had the effect of saying that a journalist could go to jail if they reported on a security operation that had gone wrong and resulted in an innocent person being killed. Labor signed up to that. We made the point here in this chamber and elsewhere in this parliament that that would stifle freedom of speech and deny Australians the right to know what is going on in their name. Labor could not pass the law quickly enough. Now they are out there wringing their hands at press conferences and saying, 'We didn't mean it.' Well, you were put on notice. You knew and you did it anyway. Now you have the chance to stop it with these amendments.

The government have the chance to stop it as well. I understand the Attorney-General has been out there saying, 'We never had any intention of sending journalists to jail.' Well, then, do something about it. Do not vote one day to send journalists to jail and then give a press conference the next day saying, 'We didn't mean to.' Vote with us now to change the law to protect freedom of the press and to protect journalists. That is what these amendments will do if you pass them. These amendments will ensure that this loosely defined and newly created term of 'news items' does not appear in the bill anymore.

Labor, enough with the hand wringing: support us and change the bill. Coalition, enough with asking us to take the Attorney-General on faith that at sometime in the future he will never prosecute a journalist: change the law so that it is impossible. Let's protect freedom of the press and let's protect the right of people in this country to know what shadowy recruitment tactics are going on so that we can have an informed debate about how to stop it. Quickly passing laws that threaten to send journalists to jail is not something that this parliament should be doing. I commend the amendments to the House.

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