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

I do not believe he has done so at all. I speak as the minister who, in partnership with my junior minister, Mr Keenan, is responsible for the agencies that conduct Australia's deradicalisation agenda and its engagement with Muslim communities. But that is certainly not the case. The Australian government, the Attorney-General's Department, the Australian Federal Police and our national security agencies work in very close collaboration with Australia's Muslim leadership and Australia's Muslim communities to help in the joint endeavour in which we are both engaged: to defeat the siren song of terrorism recruiters and radical extremists who would lure their young on a path of self-destruction. The level of cooperation that we receive from the Muslim leadership of Australia is of a very high order and it is essential to our national security and counterterrorism efforts. The level of engagement is shared as well by state and territory police forces. Nothing that Mr Dutton has said has in any way compromised or prejudiced that engagement, and I have had no suggestion from any of my agencies or my department to that effect.