Andrew Gee (Calare, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Justice and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Counter-Terrorism. Will the minister update the House on the terrorism charges laid against an Australian citizen in New South Wales yesterday. And what action is the government taking to keep our country safe and secure?

Michael Keenan (Stirling, Liberal Party, Minister for Justice) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Calare for the question. As the foreign minister has reminded the House, yesterday the Australian Federal Police's counter-terrorism operations team charged a 42-year-old man in Young in relation to serious terrorism offences. The man was allegedly providing highly sophisticated military technical know-how to ISIL, specifically the capability for them to detect and to develop missile technology. This is another example of the excellent work that has been done by the Australian Federal Police and their partners in other security agencies.

This person was around one of the 200 that have been referred to in Australia who are being investigated for providing support to individuals or groups who are participants in the Syria-Iraq conflict. This includes through funding, through facilitation or through seeking to travel to the conflict zone to participate it in the conflict. Anyone fighting with or providing material support to ISIL is committing a serious offence under Australian law and will be subject to the full force of Australian law.

The bleak reality in Syria and Iraq is that ISIL is losing territory. They are losing their financial base, they are losing their fighters and they are losing the battles. However, we are aware that their weakness does present significant security challenges and that it may result in them attempting to carry out more terrorism attacks, including attacks here in Australia.

Since the terrorism alert level was raised in 2014 to 'probable', we have charge 61 people in relation to 26 counter-terrorism operations. Our top priority remains keeping the Australian people safe here and also when they travel abroad. To achieve this, we have invested an extra $1.3 billion in our police and intelligence community to strengthen their capabilities. We have also passed eight tranches of legislation through this parliament, which has completely updated the operating environment for our police and intelligence community.

These laws have given our agencies unprecedented power to act early to prevent terrorist attacks here in Australia. They have modernised the agencies' ability to collect intelligence. They have stopped extremists from leaving Australia to fight in the conflicts. We have introduced a 10-year jail term for anyone who enters a declared area in Syria or Iraq. We have reduced the threshold for police to make arrests for terrorism offences, which has been incredibly important in keeping us safe. We have enabled our agencies to cancel the Australian citizenship of dual nationals. We have made sure that internet service providers retain metadata for a period of two years, a vitally important part of any counterterrorism investigation. We will continue to work hand in glove with the Australian Federal Police and with the rest of our security apparatus to give them what they need to keep Australia safe.