Nicolette Boele (Bradfield, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is for the Leader of the House. Two weeks ago this parliament passed legislation to respond to the Bondi terror attack. The crossbench was required to vote on legislation mere hours after receiving it. That process disrespected the one in three Australians who voted for a strong crossbench and it degrades the democracy that we fought so hard to nurture. What steps will the government take to ensure that law-making processes following future crises will not degrade democracy in this way?

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Bradfield for the question. I thank all members of the House for their cooperation in those sittings that we had not so long ago. Nothing degrades a democracy more than a terrorist attack. It's as simple as that.

As soon as the horrific antisemitic terror attack had happened in Bondi, a number of us assembled in Canberra. The Prime Minister made sure that the national security committee was meeting daily. Within the first week, the Prime Minister stood up in the courtyard to announce that there would be a legislative response with respect to guns and with respect to hate laws. From that moment, public servants worked every day, including daily briefings to myself and to the Attorney-General, through the Christmas-new year period. The moment we had legislation ready, two things happened: the Prime Minister stood up in the courtyard and announced that parliament would be recalled, and that day the legislation appeared as an exposure draft, to make sure that people had an opportunity to get across the legislation as best they could. Various negotiations started and a parliamentary inquiry started immediately as well.

I would love to have a situation where all legislation could be dealt with in a staged manner, like we do with most legislation in this House, where we don't commence debate in the week that it's introduced. That's what we normally do. But if anyone wanted any piece of evidence about why the timely nature of that going through quickly mattered, it's to think about what happened on the Sunday, not the Sunday after the legislation had been released but the Sunday before this parliament returned, when the National Socialist Network, the Neo-Nazis of Australia, disbanded. It wasn't because we were saying we were going to take our time; it was because they knew it was going to go through that week. That's what happened. They made sure that they had disbanded.

There are many organisations engaged in antisemitism. There are many organisations engaged in a number of forms of bigotry that the intelligence and law enforcement agencies that I'm responsible for as Minister for Home Affairs have to deal with. The priority that we take, without apology, is if something has to be done quickly to keep people safe then that's how we do it.