Government’s no 1 priority is keeping Australians safe

FEDERAL Member for Groom John McVeigh has moved to reassure residents following world events over the past two weeks.

“Our first priority as a government is to do everything possible to keep Australians safe and maintain our way of life, our values and our freedom,” Dr McVeigh said.

“The Australian national terror threat level has been at ‘probable’ for some time and we are aware we are not immune from the global impact of conflicts, instability and terrorist activities,” he said.

“We face real and growing challenges — and to stay ahead of the threat we have invested $1.5 billion in our law enforcement and security agencies to combat terrorism since 2014.”

Dr McVeigh said the Turnbull government passed tranches of additional national security legislation since the national terrorism threat level was raised to ‘probable’ and 12 terrorist plots in Australia had been prevented during that time.

“It is absolutely vital therefore that we have continued to invest an additional $321 million in specialist capabilities for the Australian Federal Police — the largest single funding boost to the AFP’s domestic policing capabilities in over a decade,” he said.

“As a result of recent Council of Australian Government (COAG) meetings further reviews are underway of the laws and practices directed at protecting Australians from violent extremism across all jurisdictions.

“We are continuing to work with the states and territories to develop a truly national strategy for protecting crowded places — including sporting stadiums, major events, and civic spaces.”

This month the Federal Government has also introduced the Australian Citizenship Legislation (Strengthening the Requirements for Australian Citizenship and Other Measures) Bill 2017 into Parliament which is designed to ensure citizenship is only awarded to those who truly abide by Australian values.

“While we are recognised as the most successful multicultural nation in the world these citizenship and safety initiatives are necessary to balance the threats emerging in an uncertain world,” he said.