QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
Mr BURKE (Watson—Minister for the Arts, Minister for Home Affairs, Minister for Cyber Security, Minister for Immigration and Citizenship and Leader of the House) (14:58): Security threats to members of parliament have increased and almost doubled over the last five years, from 583 five years ago to more than a thousand in the last financial year. There are roles that everybody has during campaign time in making sure that, if volunteers behave in an unacceptable way, we get them off booths and we get them off polling areas.
But it is of a completely different order when we hear the allegations that are being made at the moment before the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters, because I have not previously heard of situations where individuals have been paid to stalk, paid to disrupt and paid to intimidate. Opposition members interjecting— The SPEAKER: Order, members on my left!
The Leader of the Opposition! Mr BURKE: And wouldn't you think the Leader of the Opposition, on hearing something like that, might join together and simply react with, 'That is unacceptable'? But that's not the reaction from that man.
That man hears me say the words 'paid to stalk, paid to disrupt and paid to intimidate', and nothing in his character gives him pause for thought. Nothing in his character gives him a moment where he says those things might be unacceptable. The member for Blair was harassed, stalked and followed to his car.
The member for Calare had candidates coming up in large numbers, from booth to booth, to follow and physically intimidate. The member for Corangamite was physically blocked from being able to conduct conversations with constituents. Recent media reports have said the following: 'A crew of far-right agitators paid to harass the Prime Minister and his ministers, as well as Greens and teal Independent candidates,' and, 'They used guns-for-hire outside the church—Neo-Nazi associates, pro-Putin conspiracists and even an ex-Liberal staffer.' One of the people involved 'had been pictured alongside Neo-Nazis at a white supremacist gathering in Melbourne, and chat logs reveal he also appeared in private Neo-Nazi groups on Telegram'.
Every member of parliament should hear that and condemn it. Every member of parliament who hears that should say, 'This is not what Australian democracy is meant to be about.' Many members of this House on each side have had calls from me when there have been threats to their security. Without exception, I want everyone to be able to participate in our democracy and do so safely and, when they hear allegations like this, to fearlessly condemn them.
The SPEAKER: The member for Forrest was on a warning and continually interjected during that answer, so he shall also leave the chamber under 94(a). The member for Forrest then left the chamber.