George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

In July, I introduced the National Security Legislation Amendment Bill to strengthen the ability of the Australian intelligence community to counter the threat of terrorism. The government expects to be able to pass this legislation through the parliament in this sitting fortnight and I hope we will have the cooperation of the opposition in facilitating that. I have had discussions with Mr Dreyfus, who has expressed a spirt of cooperation to me. This week I intend to introduce a second tranche of legislation to address the most pressing gap in our current counter-terrorism legislative framework—that is, the threat posed by foreign fighters, which I addressed in response to the primary question. Additionally, later in the year I will be introducing further legislation to implement a mandatory data retention regime. It is critical that we continue to provide our intelligence and law enforcement agencies with the tools they need to detect, prevent and disrupt terror threats to Australia.