Criminal Code Amendment (State Sponsors of Terrorism) Bill 2025

Mr McCORMACK (Riverina) (17:20): On 3 August, a protest occurred on the Sydney Harbour Bridge which basically shut down Sydney, the New South Wales capital. This protest took place because an unelected official, a judge, overturned a recommendation by Premier Chris Minns—and, indeed, the New South Wales police force—against this protest happening. What we then saw at this protest were people waving flags that should never be waved in Australia: images of the Ayatollah Khomeini, Hamas flags, and banners which were hateful in their wording.

This is not the Australia that we should have in 2025, or indeed any other year. But the protest was allowed to go on because a magistrate, a judge, who had never been elected by a parliament or had their name on a how-to-vote card, went against what the Premier of the state and, moreover, the police force of the state wanted. The Premier was right, and the police were concerned about what would happen as a result of this protest.

We're seeing much too much of this. What we're seeing is good people, such as the Premier—and he is a good person, of good intent, who only wants the best for New South Wales when it comes to security, peace and harmony—being snubbed in their very right, proper, thoughtful and considered complaints against a protest going ahead, by someone who will, quite frankly, never face the ire of the public for a decision that they make.

Each of us in this chamber, if we make a decision that the public does not like, will know about it. We'll know about it within an instant of saying it, or we'll be hauled before the court of public opinion—the pub test—soon after. And that's right.

You have to be accountable; you have to be transparent. But what we are seeing in Australia today are way too many demonic protests—particularly in Melbourne. Those protests the other day were beyond the pale.

I feel for Premier Jacinta Allan and, moreover, I feel for her police force, because I know, from personal experience, from a family member who has gone to protect and serve the people, that these protesters are often armed to the teeth. They spit and kick and carry on. They are not Australian.

All too often, lately, we see them, and they are protesting about terrorist groups which should not be operating in Australia, nor should they be having people supporting them. It's not just in capital cities, though—it's in my home town of Wagga Wagga. We've got a group who like to regularly protest outside my office.

Most of the time they do it peacefully, but they're not disinclined, whenever they see me in the main street, to scream out 'Baby killer!' and other dreadful things. They daub my office with their ridiculous protests, banners and symbols, and then put up in shopfront windows things which are now before the New South Wales courts. That case has been moved to Sydney, and hopefully the right decision will be made in that regard.

But Wagga, the weekend before last, had the FUSION BOTANICAL multicultural festival. Good people, of good faith and good intent and good heart, came out and celebrated all that is great about multiculturalism. In Australia, many regional communities are at the heart of multiculturalism.

I can see Minister Rowland opposite. She'll tell me that her electorate is very much front and centre of multicultural Australia, and she'd be right, but regional Australia is as well. Many of the migrants came out from World War II.

They were Greeks; they were Italians. They helped to irrigate the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area and enhance that beautiful area. Through their hard work and desperation and determination, they built a great life for themselves and brought great things to Australia.

But why should their efforts be overshadowed now by people who are giving multiculturalism a bad name by protesting every other weekend and spitting, scratching, throwing bottles and injuring our police officers? This legislation is important legislation. It's important that we discuss it, because terrorism, in all its phases and all its elements, is abhorrent.

We know that. We know from incidents in just the recent past: the firebombing of a kosher restaurant—the Lewis' Continental Kitchen—in Sydney on 20 October 2024 and the arson attack on the Adass Israel Synagogue of Melbourne on 6 December last year. That caused an estimated $45 million damage.

That's not Australia. That is not Australia. We are very lucky in this country that we have very good intelligence agents.

ASIO does an amazing job. I have to say that it doesn't matter what government is in place; our National Security Committee do a good job. They do.

I know the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister, no matter what persuasion of politics they are, are always very fortunate that they have good people in good agencies doing good work to uncover bad people with bad intent who would do harm to our people. I agree with the member for McEwen that the first order of business, the first order of government, the most important issue is national security—keeping our people safe, keeping Australians safe.

I know that Prime Minister Albanese is in Kuala Lumpur at the moment. I know he's had a meeting with Chinese premier Li Qiang. I know he's given a thinly veiled swipe at him for the flares that were used against a RAAF surveillance plane.

I would have preferred that it weren't just a thinly veiled swipe. It should have been a—I won't quite say a full-on shirtfront, like former prime minister Tony Abbott said of the Russians there at the time, when we ended up with some Soviet vessels on our eastern coastline, but the Chinese need to know that this is unacceptable. As I say, the first order of business is looking after Australians, and at least Prime Minister Albanese raised this, because it was right to do so.

I have got every commendation for him for doing that. It would have been a difficult conversation, but at least he said it. This bill will enable the Governor-General to list foreign state entities as state sponsors of terrorism on the advice of the Australian Federal Police minister with agreement from the foreign affairs minister.

And aren't we fortunate, aren't we lucky, aren't we blessed that we've got good people in the AFP? And we have. They are exceptional people.

This bill would also create new offences which would criminalise conduct engaged in by these entities. It is high time that organisations such as the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC—we know they're terrorists. For far too long, we pussyfoot around these issues.

Let's call them what they are. I know it was difficult for the government when the ISIS brides returned here. All the shock jocks and so many people who call themselves patriots will say they shouldn't be allowed back into Australia, but they're Australian citizens, so you can't leave them stateless.

They are entitled to come back here. But we need to know if they've been in the company of terrorists; then they are terrorists themselves. They are.

If they're doing terrorist activities, they are terrorists themselves. We don't know what we don't know but, fortunately, we have very good people who monitor these things. If the government can indeed protect Australians by bringing down the strongest possible actions against any ISIS brides who have done the wrong thing, then they have my support—they do.

It's not easy being the Attorney-General, and I appreciate the Attorney-General is in the Federation Chamber for this particular motion. I commend her for her elevation to that role. We came into the parliament together, and I have every faith that she has her heart in the right place and that she, like me and the shadow Attorney-General and all of us, wants the best thing for Australians—absolutely, we do.

This bill would also provide for appropriate defences, for example, for persons who are required by law to engage with a listed entity or engage with an entity for a legitimate purpose. It makes amendments to various other Commonwealth acts to apply the law enforcement powers and other policy tools available in response to or targeted at the prevention of terrorist acts to be the new provisions concerning state sponsored terrorism.

In essence, it is going to give our police forces the correct muscle to be able to do what they were asked to do by governments. When you are a police officer, when you put that badge on, you put that badge on to protect and preserve Australian life. Our police officers, we have to give them a salute because they do a great job.

Hopefully, our police in Victoria, Victoria Police, can find that mongrel Dezi Freeman and bring him to justice, because we have a new band of sovereign citizens who think they are entitled to do whatever they like in this country. They don't want to obey our driving laws, they don't want to follow our taxation rules, they are usually a bunch of misogynists and they are doing the wrong thing by our nation.

I will say that. They go way too far, and this is what happened down in that remote Alpine Victorian country town. Hopefully, they can lead that particular person out and bring him to justice.

The coalition has called for the listing of the IRGC for more than two years—we have. The Labor government, for reasons known only to itself, has resisted these calls—I do not know why—arguing that the current terrorism list has enabled provisions under the Criminal Code to not permit the listing of foreign state entities. We will provide the support to do that, to do the right thing in this regard.

The firebombing of the continental kitchen in Sydney and the synagogue in Melbourne were the last straw—they absolutely were. I don't know why so many people in Australia hate Jews. It is just beyond belief why.

Let's call it what is: it is antisemitic, and it is anti-Jew. And, for whatever reason, we are seeing this proliferation, this rise of hatred in this country, which is unprecedented. The day of October 7 2023 was a dark day of infamy for the world—it was.

And why and how we have allowed protests of these—I was going to say a word; I will withdraw it before I even say it—people who want to promote Hamas, under the guise of 'river to the sea' and other hate filled epitaphs and wording, I just don't understand. It's not right. Why we can't get along?

I have to say, this country is probably better at multiculturalism than a lot of other countries in the Western world, which is seeing this rise of antisemitism. So anything that can be done to bring terrorism to the fore and to call it what it is has to be admired, has to be encouraged and has to be supported across the chamber. I know I have been here for a long while.

I've been here for similar period to the Attorney-General. Whenever we had this sort of legislation, all too often the Greens didn't support it. Thankfully, we've only got one Greens member in the House of Representatives at the moment.

She's not the worst of them, I will say that. But it is one too many. They've never supported good legislation which called to account these sorts of things, but, if the Labor government and the coalition can come together to support sensible, practical policy which will bring more peace and harmony to our great nation—the greatest nation on Earth and the most welcoming nation on Earth—then that is to be encouraged and that is to be strongly supported.

We should be doing everything we can to end these violent protests, particularly in our capital cities but also in country areas.