Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

We've just seen from that contribution the continuing efforts from the Liberal and National parties and their representatives to increase fear and alarm in our country. It was wholly rejected at the last election. People are sick and tired of the noise and the unnecessary anxiety that's introduced into Australian society by alarmist rhetoric of the kind that you've just seen here and the over-the-top dramatic responses to clear, concise and accurate answers from our ministers today to reassure the Australian people that our agencies that protect our country are doing their jobs for us.

As Australians we stand up, we salute our flag, and we honour veterans—veterans who fought for this country, served this country and underpin the democracy that we get to experience. It's valuable that we do that. We respect them. But what we've seen from those opposite today is a break with tradition, asking questions of detailed matters regarding national security in a way that is not only alarmist and fearmongering but dangerous to this nation. Of all the jobs we have in here in the parliament, the most important one for us as federal senators and members is the protection of our sovereignty, the confidence of our nation to be able to move freely and safely around in this great community that we call home. We are able to do that, despite attacks in a very volatile world from bots from agencies in other countries that want to undermine our harmony and that are doing everything they can to disrupt and to break the social contract toward peace for people here in Australia. Buying into that narrative of malign foreign actors is what we saw from the opposition here today. They're breeding fear and alarm, and there's something profoundly wrong at that.

What we saw in the questions that they're asking is them picking at the scabs of differences instead of declaring confidence in our security forces. Our security agencies are doing their job. They're doing it very quietly, very confidentially, very carefully. They are making assessments, by the moment, about our national security, and they're not coming in here and telling people on that side of the chamber and on the crossbenches every thought that they're ever having. In fact, they're giving very detailed, careful briefings to the people who the Australian people have elected—that is, to our leaders, who meet in a secure cabinet room to get confidential information and to enable the security agencies to do what they need to do.

What we do know is that, in Syria, the situation is becoming increasingly unstable, and our security agencies have been monitoring, and they continue to monitor, that situation, to ensure that they're prepared, as they always have to be, for anything that could happen in the world that affects our country. The Australian government is not providing assistance and is not repatriating individuals in Syrian IDP camps. The reporting otherwise is incorrect, and that has been amplified, profoundly irresponsibly, by an opposition that should know so much better than what we've seen on display here today.

Just last week—on evidence from ASIO, after serious and careful work—for the first time since the Second World War, this country, under the Albanese leadership, this Labor government, sent away the Iranian ambassador. And why did we do it? Because we wanted to send a very clear message: 'You cannot influence what happens in our country. If you do, we will reject you.' It sends a message to those who want to try and interfere in our country.

We should have confidence in all the agencies that do that work on our behalf—all 10 of them. I applaud the National Intelligence Community agencies: the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, the Australian Federal Police, the Australian Geospatial-Intelligence Organisation, the Australian Secret Intelligence Service—all of them are doing a good job. That is— (Time expired)