Michael Keenan (Stirling, Liberal Party, Minister for Justice) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you for your protection, Deputy Speaker! The Turnbull government has treated addressing family violence as an urgent national priority. The very first decision of the Turnbull cabinet was to approve the $100 million Women's Safety Package, of which $15 million was allocated for frontline legal services. There is more I could say about that particular issue, but I just want to quickly turn to the member for Brisbane's question about the Safer Communities Fund which we have established as a result of an election commitment. We committed $40 million to that at the last election. As the member for Brisbane is very well aware because some of this funding has flowed to his electorate, this will boost the efforts of local councils and local community groups in combating crime and antisocial behaviour.

Very quickly, I will turn to the issues that were raised by other speakers. The shadow Attorney-General asked me about the Director-General of Security. I would agree with his assessment that Mr Lewis is a very distinguished and well-regarded Australian public servant. Of course, the government has worked very closely with the Director-General of Security, who has done a tremendously good job providing leadership, in conjunction with the leadership provided by Commissioner Colvin of the Australian Federal Police, in keeping the Australian people safe. The shadow Attorney-General says that I have not said anything about this, but there have been three question times in the House of Representatives since these comments were made and the shadow Attorney-General has never taken the opportunity to ask me about this. I would have been very, very happy to talk to him about the professionalism of ASIO and how important ASIO has been in keeping the Australian people safe and to support the Director-General of Security, as I am very happy to do here in this chamber today. (Time expired)

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