Mark Baker (Braddon, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addessed to the Minister for Defence. Would the minister update the House on the role of the Australian Defence Force in deterring terrorist activities in Australia and our region?

Brendan Nelson (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Braddon for his thoughtful question. I also recognise and welcome to the parliament members of the Australian Defence Force who are here today and thank them for their service to our country.

Too many Australian families, and our country, have been scarred by terrorist bombings in Bali in this decade, and by 2010 this government will have increased its investment in counter-terrorism by $8.3 billion. In the Australian Defence Force, there are a number of initiatives which we have undertaken to strengthen our security, domestically and throughout the region. And the reminder that we as Australians and the world were given with the interception of the terrorist plot in the United Kingdom is a timely reminder of the importance of these initiatives.

The government has established the special operations command, essentially for special forces, to enhance the coordination of the Australian Defence Force counter-terrorist capabilities. We have also established a second tactical assault group on the eastern seaboard. Our special forces presence in Swanbourne, Perth, is well known. They are now also established on the eastern seaboard. The Incident Response Regiment, comprising 300 Australian Defence Force personnel with specialist skills and equipment to deal with chemical, biological, radiological and explosive threats, has been established. In addition to that, there is a ready response force which is trained for short-notice response to domestic security incidents, including terrorist incidents and civil emergencies.

Throughout our region, whatever the economic, cultural and political differences between the countries in our region, we face a common enemy. That enemy is terrorists, many of whom have hijacked the Islamic faith for evil ends. We are working with the Philippines in intelligence training and annual hostage recovery exercises. We are also developing, with the Philippines defence force, an army watercraft capability to support the policing and patrolling of the riverine and marshland areas in Mindanao, where terrorists have growing support and are establishing training camps. The Australian Defence Force has also been working with specialist units of the Indonesian military on counter-hijack and hostage recovery training. We are working annually with the Singaporeans, on the chemical, biological and radiological explosives exercise, and their counterpart unit. And across our region we are working with 15 countries in a Regional Special Forces Counter-Terrorism Conference, and those in the traditional Five Power Defence Arrangements are now moving their collective attention to non-conventional threats.

We as Australians are involved in what will be a generational activity: fighting terrorism. It is not something that is confined to our borders, nor indeed to our region. Everything that we do throughout the world needs to be done to see that the next generation is not left hostage to a force that it may never control.