Michelle Landry (Capricornia, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Acting Prime Minister. Will the Acting Prime Minister update the House on the steps the government is taking to ensure Australia's security?

Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for her question. The highest priority that any government can have for its people is the safety of our communities. This government has three key messages that we want to make clear to all Australians. Firstly, that this government will do all we possibly can to keep our people safe. Secondly, our security measures both at home and abroad are directed against terrorism, not religion. And thirdly, Australians should always live normally, because the terrorists' goal is to scare us from that lifestyle.

The Australian government is naturally deeply concerned about the fact that Australians are involved in Syria and Iraq, and the domestic ramifications of that involvement. Our intelligence agencies estimate that there are at least another 100 Australians providing support roles in Australia for those who are already overseas. And the shocking incident in Melbourne last night, on top of the police raids in Sydney and Brisbane—involving something like 800 police and 30 search warrants—just serve as reminders of the enormous challenges that are ahead of us.

The government has committed another $630 million over the next four years to give our security agencies the resources, the technical skills, and the legislative powers they need to combat home-grown terrorism, and to prevent Australians from committing terrorism acts overseas. The funding will boost our counter-terrorism capacity, particularly in the Australian Federal Police, ASIO and ASIS; Customs and Border Protection; and other agencies. But we are also systematically updating counter-terrorism legislation to strengthen our agencies' capacity to prevent and disrupt security threats.

The first tranche of legislation to make Australia safer will modernise and improve the legislative framework under which our intelligence agencies operate. Today, the Attorney-General will introduce the second tranche of those new laws, to give our agencies the powers they need to make it easier to arrest and return foreign fighters; to prevent those who want to be foreign fighters from leaving our country; and to disrupt terrorist attacks on our own soil. These laws are strongly supported by our policing agencies and by ASIO. The new powers will be balanced with proper oversight. We are determined to ensure that our country is ready and prepared, and takes whatever action it needs to keep Australians safe and to make sure, as much as we can, that Australians are not the perpetrators of violence in other parts of the world.