Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration and Border Protection) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Page for his question. I have been to his electorate. He is highly respected in his part of the world, and he fights on his electorate's behalf in this place, as all of my colleagues do. Because, on this very important issue, this government is at one to make sure that we can deal with those people who would pose a threat to our country.

It is a great privilege to be an Australian citizen, regardless of how that citizenship is gained. If people breach that contract with the Australian people, there is a price to pay. If people are involved in terrorist activities in the Middle East, if they are fighting in the name of Islamic State, if they are doing harm to our national interests in the Middle East or if they are doing harm to our Australian people here at home, if they are fighting in the name of terrorism, there is a price to pay for that terrorism.

The criminal law is well established in this country, and if people breach that law—whether it is overseas or here in Australia—they will pay a price and they will pay a heavy penalty for those actions. But the removal of Australian citizenship, which is a very serious move for any government to contemplate, needs to be measured and balanced, and that is exactly what this government is putting forward. We have announced, as the Prime Minister did in his speech on 23 February this year in relation to national security, that we will do whatever it takes to keep the Australian people as safe as we humanly can. So we announced this week that, for dual nationals where we would not render that person stateless—if they had been involved in terrorist activities here or abroad, if they had supported those terrorists, if they had financed those terrorists, if they had trained those terrorists, if they sought to do harm to the Australian public—we, in that circumstance, would take Australian citizenship away from that person. And so we should.

We face an unprecedented threat in this country in relation to terrorism. There are 400 investigations being conducted by ASIO at the moment that are classified as high priority. We know that 100 Australians have left our shores to go and fight in the name of ISIL in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere, and we know that at least 150 Australians, on our own soil, would seek to do us harm or would seek to support those people in the Middle East. People need to recognise that there will be a consequence; if they are dual nationals and they are involved in these sorts of activities, we take it very seriously, and we will act to strip citizenship.

Importantly, as I say, it needs to be balanced, because it is a very important consideration that we undertake. There does need to be this important principle of not rendering somebody stateless, but also, importantly, that there is judicial review in the process. That is what we have put forward, as well as a discussion paper to talk to the Australian public about these matters in coming months, and we will have a serious conversation with the Australian public.

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