Daniel Hurst, political correspondent
theguardian.com, Wednesday 24 September 2014
As government ministers call for calm after police shooting of terrorism suspect, attorney general says extremists pose greatest risk in decades
Attorney general George Brandis during debate on National Security Legislation in the senate chamber on Wednesday. Photograph: Mike Bowers/Mike Bowers
Australia’s attorney general has warned the nation faces a more immediate domestic security threat than it did during the cold war, even as other ministers pleaded for calm after the fatal shooting of a person of interest to counter-terrorism police.
George Brandis underlined the dangers posed by Australians attracted to extremist groups including Islamic State (Isis) as parliament debated the most significant changes to counter-terrorism laws in a decade.
But other cabinet members – including the justice minister, Michael Keenan, and the acting prime minister, Warren Truss – and senior police and Islamic figures called for calm following the dramatic events outside a Melbourne police station on Tuesday night.
In a separate development, several senators including the government backbencher Cory Bernardi took the first procedural step towards a fresh attempt to amend the Racial Discrimination Act, prompting claims the timing was “insensitive”.
Brandis made his comparison to the cold war as the Senate debated the government’s first national security bill, increasing the powers of intelligence agencies and criminalising disclosure of information about special intelligence agencies.
He also introduced to the Senate on Wednesday a second bill to make it easier to detain and prosecute Australians suspected of joining extremist fighters in overseas conflicts.
Both bills are likely to pass with support from Labor and the Coalition, in what Brandis described as an “impressive example of the parties putting patriotism above partisanship”.
“It is very timely that this bill should be before the Senate for consideration at this time,” Brandis said.
“It is a lamentable fact but an unavoidable truth that Australia at the moment needs the protection of its intelligence services, perhaps as never before. Certainly there has been no time since the cold war, or perhaps even no time including the cold war, when the domestic threat posed by those who would do us harm has been so immediate, so acute, so present in the minds of our people. Tragically we saw that illustrated as recently as overnight in Melbourne.”
Two counter-terrorism police officers were stabbed on Tuesday night during an arranged meeting with 18-year-old Abdul Numan Haider outside Endeavour Hills police station in Melbourne’s south-eastern suburbs.
Haider was shot dead. He had been seen in a shopping centre with an Isis flag about a week ago, authorities said, and his passport had been suspended.
In the past fortnight Australia has increased the terrorism alert level from medium to high, conducted the nation’s largest ever counter terrorism raids in Sydney, pre-deployed 600 Australian Defence Force members to the Middle East for potential action against Isis in Iraq, and stepped up security at government and military buildings.
Tony Abbott has flown to New York to participate in a UN security council meeting chaired by the US president, Barack Obama, to discuss how the risks posed by disaffected citizens who travelled to Iraq and Syria to join groups such as Isis.
Security agencies believe about 60 Australians have travelled to those countries to fight.
Truss said the prime minister had spoken to the wives of both injured police officers and wished them “a full and speedy recovery and commend them on the bravery of their actions”.
He said Australians “should remain calm, carry on with their normal lives, confident that our law enforcement and security agencies will do everything humanly they can to keep all members of the Australian community safe”.
“We are an inclusive and tolerant society,” Truss told parliament.
“The actions of violent criminals do not represent the views or the attitudes of the overwhelming majority of Australians regardless of their faith or ethnicity. I urge the Australian public to remember that violence against anyone based on their religion or their beliefs or race is never acceptable. To turn on each other on the basis of religion or race would just give in to the terrorism groups and what they want.”
The opposition leader, Bill Shorten, said the nation must “meet this moment with understanding and tolerance, not division and violence”.
He said people would ask why “a very small number of people raised in Australia” could be attracted to the cause of Isis and similar groups.
“Perhaps part of the answer is this. In a complicated and uncertain and complicated, fundamentalist extremism gives the illusion of certainty and simplicity,” Shorten said.
“This is the poison of sectarianism and extremism. It offers a sense of power to people who may feel powerless, an outlet for the bottled-up rage and hatred of the isolated and unwell.
“But this is only ever a harmful mirage. There is no glory in murder, no honour in crime, no power in death.
“We have a responsibility to send a clear message to those drawn to this conflict. Whatever problems you may perceive that you have, violence is not the solution.
“Whatever you think is wrong with the world – extremism and fanaticism will never make it right.
“We cannot, we must not, we will not, allow a tiny minority to divide our generous, inclusive society. On behalf of our wounded police officers, we cannot allow this country to become polarised.”
Abbott has previously walked away from an election promise to amend the Racial Discrimination Act, arguing he did not want to do anything to jeopardise national unity at a time when all communities must be partners in the fight against terrorism.
But Bernardi and crossbench senators Bob Day and David Leyonhjelm are co-sponsoring a new bill to amend section 18C. On Wednesday they gave notice to the Senate of their intention to present the bill on the next sitting day.
The existing section makes it unlawful to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate someone on the basis of race. The private bill would remove offend and insult from this section.
Bernardi said the timing was out of his hands, but told Guardian Australia: “One of the most important principles and freedoms that we have in this country is freedom of speech. I want to strengthen that. It’s always a good time to strengthen freedom of speech.”
The Greens senator Penny Wright said the timing was “insensitive”.
“A groundswell of public opinion has defeated this legislation once and we are confident any proposal to bring it back will also fail,” Wright said.
