Ken O'Dowd (Flynn, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Will the minister advise the House of actions the government is taking to combat terrorism through countering the narratives of violent extremism?

Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Flynn for his question and I note his concern about this very serious matter. The government is intent on impacting the drivers of terrorism. We have a clear strategy for countering the ideology that gives rise to violent extremism; we are investing considerable resources to protect those most vulnerable to the terrorist narrative and strengthen community engagement. To this end, the government has funded $545 million for programs to strengthen relations across our multicultural communities. We are funding $13 million for direct early intervention through mentoring, counselling and coaching and education and employment support for vulnerable individuals who appear to be on the path to radicalisation.

Last week we announced a further $18 million for an initiative to counter propaganda that terrorist groups are spreading online to exploit vulnerable young Australians. Our message is clear: if you support terrorist organisations like Daesh here or abroad, you have been duped. It is not a noble cause; it is a barbaric, criminal outfit that seeks to take us back to the dark ages with its senseless savagery and inhumanity. I too want to applaud members of our Muslim community here in Australia who are taking a stand against extremism and working with the government, mosques and community groups to keep our people safe. The Attorney-General represented the government last week in Washington at the United States' Summit on Countering Violent Extremism. This was a really important forum for sharing information, experiences and techniques and for exploring strategies as to how extremism can best be countered in our respective nations. Australia will host a summit midyear with nations in our region to discuss how we can best combat the terrorist narrative and address the threat of online radicalisation.

Paradoxically, Daesh promotes its primitive, evil message by exploiting sophisticated modern technology and the very freedoms that we cherish. But we must protect citizens against the abuse of those freedoms, so the government will reduce access to extremist material online through working with government agencies, with the private sector and with international partners to take down online extremist content and to shut down extremist websites that pose a risk to our security. This is a global threat that requires a global response, and Australia is playing its part to counter terrorism wherever it occurs.

Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Families and Payments) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Can the Prime Minister confirm reports today that not one Daesh foreign fighter has had their Australian welfare payment cancelled?

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is not correct. To the best of my knowledge and understanding, all of the foreign fighters who are currently overseas have had any welfare payments that they were receiving well and truly cancelled, as you would expect. The last thing we want is to see Australian taxpayers funding terrorism. We are now looking at whether we can cancel the welfare payments of people engaging in terrorist activities here in Australia. The legislation passed late last year, with the support of both sides of this parliament, certainly does give us that power. We intend to use that power where it is in the best interests of our country to do so. There will be some situations—and maybe quite a few situations—where for all sorts of reasons it is best not to exercise that power because we may not want to alert people to the fact that we are onto them or we may not want to endanger people who are providing us with information about them, but I do want to give the shadow minister who asked the question this categorical assurance: this government has the will, and increasingly has the power, to keep our country as safe as we humanly can be in these difficult and perilous times.