Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2026-2027
Dr REID (Robertson) (19:24): I rise on the Home Affairs appropriations at a time when the security environment facing Australia is more complex, more contested and more consequential than at any point in recent memory. The first responsibility of any national government is the protection of its people, and that responsibility is not theoretical. It is not confined to briefings, agencies or capital city institutions.
It is felt in every community across this country, including in regional New South Wales, including on the Central Coast and including in the homes, workplaces, hospitals and small businesses of the people that I represent. National security today is broader than it once was. It is about the integrity of our borders, it is about the resilience of our critical infrastructure, it is about countering terrorism, espionage and foreign interference, and it is about disrupting organised crime, human trafficking and people smuggling.
It is about ensuring our cyber defences are strong enough to protect not only Commonwealth systems but the local services and businesses that Australians rely on from day to day, and it is about maintaining confidence in the institutions that keep our democracy secure, orderly and free. This is the serious purpose of the Home Affairs portfolio. Australia cannot afford the luxury of complacency.
We live in a region and a world where strategic competition is sharpening, where authoritarian states are more willing to test boundaries, where cyberoperations can reach into local communities and where criminal networks are increasingly sophisticated, transnational and technologically enabled. These threats do not always announce themselves at the border. They do not always arrive by sea or by air.
Sometimes they arrive through a phishing email to a small business; sometimes they arrive through attempts to compromise a local council, a hospital network, a water provider or an energy system; and sometimes they arrive through coercion, misinformation, illicit finance or foreign interference designed to weaken our democracy. That is why appropriations before the House matter.
They support the capability of the Commonwealth to identify risk, respond to threats and protect the national interest. They support the work of our border agencies in ensuring that legitimate travel and trade continue, while those who seek to exploit our systems are met with firmness and resolve. They support the integrity of our migration system because public confidence depends on a system that is orderly, credible and fair and administered in the national interest.
They support the cyber and infrastructure resilience that modern Australia requires, because in 2026 a cyberattack on a regional health service, a port, a freight network or an energy provider is not merely a technical inconvenience; it is a national security event with local consequences. And they support the work required to counter extremism, espionage, foreign interference and organised criminal activity before they cause us harm.
For regional Australia, national security must never be understood as something that happens elsewhere. Our communities are part of the national security architecture. Our hospitals hold sensitive data, our councils operate essential services, our regional transport networks move goods and people, our small businesses are part of our national supply chains, and our emergency services stand on the front line when issues arise.
That is why investment in Home Affairs is not an abstraction. It is practical, it is necessary, and it is about ensuring that the Commonwealth has the capability, the discipline and the operational readiness to meet the threats of the present and prepare for the threats of the future, because our nation's strength is found not only in our agencies, our intelligence capabilities and our border systems but also in the cohesion of our communities, the trust people have in democratic institutions and the confidence Australians have in their government acting in the national interest.
That balance matters. Australia can be strong on border protection and still be fair; we can be uncompromising against people smugglers and criminal networks while remaining decent and humane; and Australia can meet a changing security environment with calm resolve and not fear. This is the work that these appropriations support.
They support the Home Affairs portfolio, which is central to the protection of Australia's sovereignty, security and social cohesion; they support the agencies and personnel who perform difficult, often unseen work in the service of our nation; and they support the systems that allow Australia to remain open to the world without being vulnerable to those that seek to do us harm.
In matters of security, the parliament should always remember what's at stake. It is about ensuring that Australia remains sovereign, secure and free. From the Central Coast to every regional community across New South Wales and beyond, Australians expect their government to act with steadiness, strength and purpose, and these appropriations help provide that foundation.
On that basis, I support the Home Affairs appropriations and commend them to the House.