Anne Aly (Cowan, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on the critical issue of countering violent extremism for our national and international security, particularly in light of international events that may or may not pose challenges to our security and may see us relying more and more on our own capabilities and resilience in this area. Countering violent extremism, or CVE, refers largely to the prevention and intervention aspects of counterterrorism. It encompasses not only law enforcement capabilities for disrupting terrorist activities but also the social aspects of prevention, targeting the push and pull factors that account for the terrorist phenomenon.

In October last year, I was privileged to be the only Australian representative to speak at Madrid+10: Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism. That is a policy dialogue that is organised by the World Leadership Alliance, an alliance comprising democratic former presidents and prime ministers from around the world. In 2005, the first Madrid policy dialogue was co-chaired by Kofi Annan and Bill Clinton. The two-day dialogue in Madrid last October acknowledged that radicalisation and extremism continue to undermine human rights and fundamental democratic values and destabilise global peace. It also asserted that law enforcement and military means alone will not ever be an adequate response to the scourge of terrorism that we face in today's world. The gathering in Madrid analysed and defined the most necessary responses to violent extremism, and it produced recommendations aiming at a global consensus to stop violent extremism. It also proposed a new framework for a broad partnership and global action. That framework on global action comprises 10 elements: legitimacy, inclusion, faith and ideology, education, technology, prevention, entrenched conflicts, regional solutions, security, and practising what we preach.

The global consensus framework builds on decades of knowledge, evidence, and expertise in countering violent extremism. But for Australia it presents us with an opportunity to develop an Australian framework for countering violent extremism that is responsive to both our unique and also our not-so-unique circumstances. Such a plan is necessary, because despite our robust and comprehensive law enforcement framework, despite our wide-ranging and extensive legal framework for countering terrorism, despite our strong intelligence and monitoring capabilities, attention to the prevention and intervention capabilities has not kept up and we are lagging behind in this part of our approach.

On a weekly, and sometimes daily, basis, I am getting emails and phone calls from parents who are in fear for their children. They tell me that they have tried everything. They tell me that they are struggling to find any help, any support, any information that could help them stop their children from going down a dark path. They tell me that they are coming to me as a last resort. That is why we need a plan for preventing and combating violent extremism in Australia that is driven by those principles that were brought together in the Madrid+10 policy dialogue, and that take into account three things that I propose, the first one being socialising agencies, those institutions, structures and individuals that do influence young people; the second being social cohesion, the soft power mechanisms that promote and sustain positive interrelatedness and unity between individuals and organisations in society; and the third being social influence—actors, institutions and groups that exert positive interpersonal effects on individuals.

Such a plan should work across five areas of social and economic participation, and integrate resilience against violent extremism into these areas. It should be based on research and good practice around the world and be integrated into a smart framework that aims to balance the robust hard measures with effective soft measures. Smart counterterrorism is achieved through such an integrated strategy, with a resource base and tool kit that draws from both hard and soft power. In closing, I would like to say smart CT is not just a matter of balancing these measures; it is a matter of getting them right.