Bob Katter (Kennedy, Katter's Australian Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

R () (): Prime Minister, what action is being take to secure national sovereignty over the only Panamax port facility in northern Australia, Darwin? Has Australia already suffered a $39 billion punishment for expressing an opinion questioning COVID's origins? Is not China's Global Switch still holding national defence data, while China controls and/or owns 43 per cent of Australia's electricity industry and 100 per cent of our solar electricity supply, with a further 25 per cent monopoly of solar electricity? Ninety-three per cent of our petrol and diesel are imported from Singapore and South Korea, countries beholden to China. What action on national security, Prime Minister?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

N (—) (): The Treasurer may wish to add to the answer in relation to the activities of the Foreign Investment Review Board. This government has introduced the strongest foreign investment rules of any government. This government has said no to many proposals it believes would compromise Australia's national security. The one referred to by the member, in northern Australia, is currently the subject of a further assessment being undertaken by the Department of Defence.

When it comes to protecting our national security, what you have to be conscious of is that you have to be prepared to make investments in your national security that can keep Australians safe. That's why, as a government, we have overachieved when it comes to restoring our investment in our defence forces and their capability; we're investing more than two per cent of our GDP, the size of our economy, in our defence capability. In addition to that, we have restored investments in the Australian Federal Police and our other security intelligence agencies so we can keep a close watch and take action wherever we need to, to ensure that Australia is protected—whether it's from the threat of organised crime or in counterterrorism or from the emergence, as we've seen, over the last many years of right-wing extremism and other forms of extremism in this country. Just last week we took the decision to list Hezbollah as a full terrorist organisation. This goes further to our resolve to address issues of national security.

We have taken strong stands against those who have sought to coerce us. We have said things and rejected decisions they would have us make. We have stood up night and day, and called out the issues that need to be called out in our part of the world. We have worked closely with our partners and our allies to ensure we have the capability to defend Australia's interests in our part of the world. The AUKUS agreement has been one of the most significant, if not the most significant, working together with the United States and the United Kingdom to ensure Australia is working with its closest partners and allies, to have the capabilities we need to defend Australia in the face of the instability we know to be present in the Indo-Pacific region. It took our government to do that. It took our government to invest in our defence capability. It took our government to stand up to those who would seek to coerce us. We didn't have an each-way bet on national security on this side of the House. We have always stood up strongly to those who would seek to coerce us. Others may wish to appease. Our government will always stand up to those who seek to coerce Australia.