MATTERS OF URGENCY
Senator BELL (New South Wales—One Nation Whip) (16:43): The first responsibility of any Australian government is simple keep: Australians safe. In that responsibility, the Albanese Labor government is failing and has failed because, when it comes to Australians who chose to travel overseas to join, fight for or support Islamic State, the Albanese Labor government has its priorities wrong.
ISIS is a terrorist organisation responsible for murder, torture, rape, slavery, executions and acts of terror on an industrial scale. Its victims include innocent civilians: religious minorities, women and children, just to name a few. The people who travelled to its so-called caliphate knew the organisation they were associating with and the atrocities it carried out.
They made a choice. They chose to leave Australia. They chose to associate with, support or fight for one of the most barbaric terrorist organisations the world has ever seen, and, when people make that choice, Australians have every right to expect their government to put the safety of the country first.
Instead, the Albanese Labor government has supported the return of ISIS-linked individuals to Australia and chosen not to pursue stronger measures to prevent their return. Labor has washed its hands, as we have heard. They have washed their hands of responsibility, blamed everyone but themselves and left Australians to face the risks.
Rather than pursuing every lawful avenue to stop ISIS-linked individuals returning to Australia, Labor throws up its hands, saying nothing can be done, leaving everyday Australians to live with the consequences of Labor's failures. We know that Australians travelled to Syria and Iraq to fight with or support terrorist groups. We know that dozens of Australian men who went overseas to fight have already returned and we know that further ISIS-linked women and children have been repatriated from Syria.
Every person who made the decision to travel to ISIS-controlled territories to associate with ISIS or to support its causes must be held accountable for the choices that they made. Every person who associated with ISIS and who is then released into the Australian community presents a national security risk that must be treated with the utmost seriousness—something this Labor government is failing to do.
Australians should not be asked to accept the risk while the Albanese Labor government washes its hands of responsibility and blames everyone but itself. Bondi should have been a warning to this country. It showed the deadly consequences of radicalisation taking hold in our communities and the terrible price that is paid when extremist ideology is not confronted early and decisively.
Citizenship is not simply a one-way contract where Australia owes you an obligation regardless of what obligations you abandon yourself. If you leave this country, pledge allegiance to a terrorist organisation, fight for it or support its atrocities, you have betrayed Australia in one of the most fundamental ways imaginable. One Nation believes Australians have the right to say to anyone who has made that decision: 'You made your choice.
You chose ISIS. You turned your back on Australia. You cannot simply demand to come back and endanger the safety of every Australian community.' Tomorrow, One Nation—Senator Hanson—will introduce legislation that puts the safety of Australians first.
Our bill will give Australia stronger powers to prevent foreign terrorist fighters and ISIS linked individuals from returning to this country, where they present an unacceptable security risk. It will create foreign terrorist fighter exclusion orders. It will strengthen passport powers.
It will stop automatic return permits. It will tighten terrorism bail laws. All of these things the Labor government could be doing and is refusing to do.
And it will impose serious penalties on anyone who unlawfully facilitates the return of a person connected to terrorist activities. These are not symbolic measures. These are real changes that should be taking place.
And Labor should have acted earlier to implement them. They are practical steps to stop the risk before it crosses our border rather than waiting until it's inside Australia, where you then hope it can be managed. One Nation's principle will always be that the safety of Australians must come first.
The Albanese Labor government has chosen to blame others for their failure to act. It has refused to test every lawful option available to protect Australians. One Nation will not wash our hands of responsibility.
We believe this problem can be dealt with. There are solutions, and we are taking those steps. We are introducing legislation.
We will be strong at the border. We will be strong against terrorism where this Labor government has failed. (Time expired)