Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

The bipartisanship shown yesterday in the statements, 'We offer unequivocal bipartisan support to what is the response of the government,' and, 'I want to make it abundantly clear on behalf of the coalition that, while we sit opposite from the government in this chamber, we are entirely united behind the measures announced,' hasn't lasted that long. The member for Canning did an interview this morning where he was asked, 'Why didn't the coalition list it during its time in government?' The member for Canning responded:

That's a good question. I was the chair of the intelligence committee. I was always keen to list it. That's for whoever was in government then to explain.

To be very clear, he's talking about the then attorney-general, the then leadership and the various ministers that were then in office. That interview was today. He did another interview yesterday. Yesterday he said, 'I think we should have listed the IRGC sooner, but I understand that our intelligence agencies had to stack it all up and do so in a forensic manner.'

We take these issues very seriously. We listen to intelligence agencies. We don't try to second guess them, as occurred with the caravan incident. We wait for the proper advice. We get proper briefings and then we act on them. We act by taking the advice of ASIO as well as the Australian Federal Police. We got the advice on Monday morning and acted as soon as possible, given the need to get Australian personnel out of Tehran safely.

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