Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to move a motion relating to ISIS fighters, as circulated.

Leave not granted.

Pursuant to contingent notice of motion standing in my name, I move:

That so much of the standing orders be suspended as would prevent me moving a motion to provide for the consideration of a matter, namely a motion to give precedence to a motion relating to ISIS fighters.

Sue Lines (President) | Link to this | Hansard source

Consistent with previous rulings of the chair, repeated suspensions of standing orders should not be used as a means to frustrate the business of the Senate. I will allow this suspension motion, but a third will not be entertained.

Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you very much. I move that the motion relating to ISIS fighters may be moved immediately, have precedence over all other business and be determined without amendment. There is no more urgent consideration before this parliament than the safety and security of Australia and its people. It is the first responsibility of this parliament, and it's not something we can afford to kick down the road. People who left Australia to join the depraved ISIS terrorist cult have been allowed to return, and this Labor government has actively helped them despite saying it would not. These people represent a direct threat to the safety of Australians and the security of this nation. There are more of them. Thirteen men linked to ISIS and currently held in a Baghdad prison may soon be released. They may seek to return to Australia as well. They include Tareq Kamleh, also known as 'Dr Jihad'—

Steph Hodgins-May (Victoria, Australian Greens) | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Hanson, there's a point of order. Please take your seat. Minister.

Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) | Link to this | Hansard source

[Inaudible] debate on the suspension, not on the substantive. So I'm just asking you to bring Senator Hanson back to the argument, which is about why this should be considered urgent to be debated.

Steph Hodgins-May (Victoria, Australian Greens) | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes. Senator Hanson, please do bring it back to that point.

Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

I believe that I am. He is known as Dr Jihad, who appeared in ISIS propaganda and called for Muslims everywhere to join ISIS or conduct jihad everywhere. The Minister for Home Affairs has said that the law leaves him with no other option than to permit the return of these people, despite the threat they pose. That's why it is urgent for the Senate to bring the Protecting Australians from Foreign Terrorist Fighters Bill to debate immediately. If the law does not currently prevent these people from returning, our duty to the Australian people is to change the law. One Nation is acting where the Labor government has failed to act. The bill creates a new foreign terrorist fighter exclusion order. This is in addition to the existing temporary exclusion order regime. The new order allows the minister to go to the Federal Court and establish that the person poses an unacceptable risk—

Steph Hodgins-May (Victoria, Australian Greens) | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Hanson, can you please really focus on the urgency component of this?

Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

I can explain the urgency—why this is needed. That is quite clear, in why the bill needs to be introduced into the chamber.

Steph Hodgins-May (Victoria, Australian Greens) | Link to this | Hansard source

Speak to the urgency, not the substantive.

Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm sorry—if the Labor Party doesn't like what I'm reading out here, telling the people why we desperately need this, then they have the problem with this.

Steph Hodgins-May (Victoria, Australian Greens) | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm the chair, and I'm asking you to keep it to the urgency component of the suspension, please.

Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

The urgency is that it needs to go to the courts. The bill needs to be introduced so it can go to the courts to keep these people out of the country. That is the urgency of this motion.

Steph Hodgins-May (Victoria, Australian Greens) | Link to this | Hansard source

Please continue but, as I reiterated, on the urgency component.

Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

This is in addition to the existing temporary exclusion order regime. The new order, which is urgent, allows the minister to go to the Federal Court and establish that the person poses an unacceptable risk based on the advice of security agencies. It is measured and it is robust. Judicial oversight is maintained. It also strengthens terrorism bail laws and passport powers, and it imposes serious penalties on people who unlawfully facilitate the return of terrorist fighters.

One Nation strongly believes that every possible legal measure must be employed to prevent the return of terrorists to our shores. We must take all possible steps to ensure the safety of Australians. Labor's approach to this issue has been to hide behind advice about constitutional questions. This is why there's urgency. The government should table this advice instead of keeping Australians in the dark and stop using it as a convenient excuse for failing to act. I say let the High Court determine whether a law is constitutional, because that is its job. We can't afford to sit on our hands and wait.

Labor has stood by while two ISIS linked women on serious charges were released into the community on bail. Labor has said they won't assist the return of these 13 men imprisoned in Baghdad, but that's what they said about the so-called ISIS brides they helped to return. Labor can redeem itself by allowing this debate and supporting One Nation's legislation. The safety and security of the Australian people demand no less. We should act before these men are released. We must put in place every possible barrier to prevent their return. One Nation has done its part by drafting this bill to protect Australians. We ask that the Senate suspend standing orders to debate our bill and put the safety of Australians first, and that's a matter of urgency.

David Shoebridge (NSW, Australian Greens) | Link to this | Hansard source

Well, this is the One Nation dog whistle, isn't it? They come in here, proposing legislation they know is unconstitutional. It's got about as much chance of surviving a constitutional challenge as a paper kite in a bushfire. That's what they're proposing with this legislation. They even say it. They come and say, 'Let it go to the courts; we don't have to worry about constitutionality.' Senator Hanson tried to go to Syria on a Channel 7 funded trip. She tried to go there, but it was all too hard. Well, I'll tell you what. I've been to north-east Syria, and I've spoken to the people who fought and defeated ISIS. I've spoken to those brave women fighters who fought and defeated ISIS, and they don't support what Senator Hanson is doing.

Steph Hodgins-May (Victoria, Australian Greens) | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Shoebridge, please take your seat. Senator Hanson.

Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

I want that comment withdrawn because there's no truth in it whatsoever.

Steph Hodgins-May (Victoria, Australian Greens) | Link to this | Hansard source

Sorry, which comment?

Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

What was just said about Syria. I want that comment withdrawn. There is no truth in it whatsoever.

Steph Hodgins-May (Victoria, Australian Greens) | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Hanson, it's a debating point, so please take your seat.

David Shoebridge (NSW, Australian Greens) | Link to this | Hansard source

It might be inconvenient for Senator Hanson to know that the people who fought and defeated ISIS, the brave women fighters who fought and defeated ISIS—whom I've met; Senator Hanson hasn't—want this country to support a pathway to justice. They want us to support the International Criminal Court. They want us to cooperate with international tribunals. They want us to find a pathway so that the people who fought for ISIS can actually be held to account. They don't support this kind of dog whistle. They don't support this non-answer. They want us to actually back in and find a pathway to justice. They have no interest in some unconstitutional kite flying from One Nation. They want a solution where people are held to account for justice.

You have no interest in justice. You want to blow your dog whistle. You want to pretend that you're doing this. The Greens want a pathway to justice. Do you know how you do that? You back in international tribunals. You back in the International Criminal Court and all the things that One Nation comes in here and opposes day after day after day. We want justice. That's why we won't support your rubbish.

Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Environment and Water) | Link to this | Hansard source

Just to be very clear, the motion currently before the Senate is effectively an urgency motion. It is a motion seeking to suspend standing orders to consider Senator Hanson's bill. Now, depending on the outcome of that result, we will have an opportunity to express our views on that bill. But the matter before us right now is whether the standing orders should be suspended to debate this matter, which would have the effect of continuing to disrupt the other business of the Senate. The government does not support the suspension of standing orders.

We as a government of course acknowledge that any government's priorities need to be headed by maintaining the safety and security of the Australian population, and that is something that this government has done, including in relation to foreign fighters and the group that have become known as ISIS brides. We have repeatedly made the point that as a government we are not providing any assistance to those individuals to return to Australia. Even though it doesn't seem to be accepted by some in this chamber, it is well known that, under Australian law, Australian citizens have a right to return to Australia. But this government is not providing an ounce of assistance to those individuals to return, so the government does not support the suspension of these standing orders.

It is absolutely clear to anyone who has paid any attention to the debates about this issue that the bill that Senator Hanson is seeking to introduce is unconstitutional and would be thrown out by the High Court at the first opportunity. This is simply Senator Hanson seeking to score political points on a particular issue in front of the Australian people at the moment. This government is about laws that stand up in court, that do protect Australians and that don't result in being thrown out by a court, exposing Australians to greater risk—and that is what would be the consequence of Senator Hanson's bill if it were to pass the Senate chamber.

We know that the current legislation that governs the use of temporary exclusion orders, which is what Senator Hanson's bill goes to—the current law, which was introduced by the former government, goes to the absolute maximum lengths that are permissible under the Australian Constitution. If any politician in this chamber, whether it be Senator Hanson, a coalition member or an Australian Greens member, seeks to amend the laws to take them further, that new law would be knocked over by the High Court and would not protect Australians. What this government is about is protecting Australians, not just seeking headlines, which is what Senator Hanson is doing. On that basis, we oppose the motion to suspend standing orders, and I move that the question be put.

Sue Lines (President) | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is that the question be now put.

Sue Lines (President) | Link to this | Hansard source

The question now is that the suspension of standing orders be agreed to.