Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Vice-President of the Executive Council) Share this | Hansard source

I'm not personally aware of all of the organisations that Senator Di Natale has listed there, but if his general point is that there are a lot of Muslim Australians and a lot of organisations involved in the Muslim community who do good work in the great Australian spirit of promoting cohesiveness and providing support then, of course, I completely 100 per cent endorse that. And I know that everyone in this chamber would endorse that.

What the Prime Minister has said is that, clearly in the context of some of the challenges we have been facing and in the context of this absolutely terrible event over the weekend, there are some challenges for government in that there are hundreds of people under investigation at any one point in time—230 Australians right now are having their passports cancelled because of suspicions in relation to relevant activities. It's very difficult for government to provide 24/7 surveillance of all of these Australians. People should reflect on what that—the government providing 24/7 surveillance of individuals on the basis of suspicion—would actually mean. What the Prime Minister has said, appropriately, is that there is a role for leaders in the Islamic community to do more to help us identify earlier when potential issues of concern are emerging. That is of course entirely appropriate. I am sure that all reasonable Australians would share that as a reasonable proposition.