Andrew Wilkie (Denison, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In question time today I will ask the Prime Minister to urgently reinstate the permanent Australian Federal Police presence at Hobart Airport. Those officers were controversially withdrawn in 2014, and the decision has now become a whole lot more problematic in the wake of the attacks on soft targets throughout Europe, including in France, Germany, Belgium and, of course, most recently the shocking attack in Manchester.

The government claims Tasmania Police have filled the gap and that the decision was supported by an appropriate risk assessment. But, frankly, that is patent nonsense, because there is still no permanent TasPol presence at the airport, and it takes a ridiculously long time for them to reach the airport in the event of an incident. Moreover it is an undeniable fact that the terrorist threat these days is from people who are already among us and who are smart enough to search out soft targets. The decision to withdraw the AFP from Hobart Airport was foolish and dangerous, and there is no good reason to not remedy it now, seeing as the government has just boosted the AFP's budget by $500 million. Frankly, in the circumstances with all that we know and all the warnings that have been given, if there is a tragic incident at Hobart Airport then the blood will be on this federal government's hands.