Jessica Collins (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, there were—I will take that interjection. There were very good questions today. There were serious questions on national security, and unfortunately we got unserious answers from this Labor government. We asked about the return of terrorists and we asked about the return of ISIS brides to Australian soil, but all we got was obfuscation. We got no answers from this Labor government, but the Australia people deserve better. The Australian people are afraid and uncertain. They're scared about where these ISIS brides are going to live. They're scared about what these ISIS brides are going to do. They're thinking, 'Are they going to be our new neighbour?'

There are beautiful communities in Australia—migrant communities that have come here from the Middle East to build a better life for them and their families—and they are scared. This Labor government has lost control of Australia's safety and security. The Australian people want to know how many temporary exclusion orders in total have been issued over the life of this Albanese government. We asked that question today and we got a nonanswer. It's a very simple question about a very simple mechanism that the government can use to prevent people from returning to Australia if they pose a security risk to the Australian people, yet they couldn't tell us how many, under the Albanese government, had been excluded from returning to Australia because of the security risk that they pose.

Australian people want to know what assurances the minister can provide to the Australian public about whether Kirsty Rosse-Emile has been issued a temporary exclusion order, because, according to reporting in the Nightly, she once openly declared that she wanted to make bombs. This woman is now among the cohort of 34 Australian citizens seeking to return from Syria.

So I ask the Australian people: do you have confidence in this Labor government keeping you safe? I don't. You've just got to take one look at its record over the past few years—the firebombings of synagogues, of places of worship, of childcare centres, where Australian children go to learn and have fun with their peers. Australian parents shouldn't be in fear of sending their children to child care or to schools every single day. We've had homes attacked, and of course we've had the tragic event at Bondi, Australia's worst terror event on Australian soil. This is a hopeless, reckless and weak government that has little regard for Australia's national security.

What is the coalition going to do about it? Well, we are very clear. We will introduce legislation to make it a criminal offence to facilitate the re-entry of individuals linked to terrorist hotspots or terrorist organisations who have committed terror related offences. We will take direct action in parliament to strengthen our laws to protect Australia's way of life, because we take national security, domestic security, the security of Australian families seriously. We will shut the door to people who do not share our values. And we will send a very clear message that anyone who travels to a designated terrorist hotspot such as Syria to support a death cult like ISIS does not deserve to come back to Australia.

The coalition, under the leadership of Angus Taylor, will always put national security and community safety first. We will not allow third parties to facilitate the return of individuals who choose to align themselves with ISIS. And let's be very clear about that. These women chose to support the death cult that has held a reign of terror over good people. And now they want to come back to Australia and bring that here. That was a grave choice that they made, and we will always stand against that and we will always put the safety and security of Australian citizens first.