Mr HUNT (7:39 PM) —I rise to speak on the Intelligence Services Amendment Bill 2003 knowing that all of us in this House are aware of the international climate which faces not just Australia or the Western world but the entire global community. Only two weeks ago, we witnessed the tragedy of the Madrid bombing, where 200 souls were destroyed and over 1,000 people were injured, many of them grievously. That bombing is a tragic and timely reminder that we are faced with a situation not like anything that Australian society has faced before, because it is an insidious movement carried out by a small group who are seeking to sow seeds of disruption, destruction and damage throughout not just the Western world but the moderate Islamic world as well.

In an article in the Herald Sun today, I wrote that al-Qaeda is seeking to establish a Taliban-style Islamic caliphate across the world. That is its objective. It is a clear, 100-year vision and it is an objective which it seeks to bring about through jihad or holy war. There is no capacity to reason, talk or negotiate. Everything that we try is rejected. We are infidels in their mind, and so too are all of those moderate Islamic states which reject the notion of a Taliban-style globe. That is the situation we face today. The strategic objective of al-Qaeda is very clear. It is to bring down the core Islamic states of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Indonesia by destabilising them and breaking down the structures in those societies. In order to do that, it seeks to break down Western connections, to frighten away Western engagement, to break down resolve within those societies and to cause fragmentation. That is the world which we now face.

There are two core elements in the response to that world. Firstly, there has to be hard security, and that is contained within this bill. It is about taking head-on those who will not negotiate, those who do not seek anything other than the annihilation of a system in which they have no belief. They reject the democracies; they reject the moderate Islamic societies; they reject all groupings other than their own combination of al-Qaeda and a Taliban-style globe. Secondly, and this is something I want to lay before the House in speaking to this bill, there also has to be what is known as soft power. Soft power is the recognition that ideas can move countries and people. They will not change al-Qaeda; they will not change the core Taliban. But it is very important that, whilst we use the hard measures to defend ourselves and to break down the capability of al-Qaeda and those extremists who support al-Qaeda, at the same time we take three key steps to influence the communities from which they draw some of their people.

Firstly, there has to be a democratisation of both wealth and political power within the Middle East. We see in Afghanistan and Iraq the seeds of that democratisation; we see extraordinary steps. Incidentally, in Iran, Libya and Syria, we see the nascent steps towards some form of disarmament. It is very positive. Let us not overstate it, but it is positive. So, firstly, there has to be a democratisation of wealth and political power in the Middle East. The Western world has to stand up and take responsibility, because we have been too weak on that front in the past. Secondly, we have to encourage those who would support moderate, broad based education as opposed to those who would support extremist education. Thirdly, we have to participate in joint policing operations. But in terms of hard security, intelligence is indispensable and the Intelligence Services Amendment Bill 2003 is critical to bringing forth those steps.

What it does is essentially two things: firstly, it allows Australian Secret Intelligence Service personnel to be armed under appropriate circumstances; and, secondly, it allows them to participate in the planning of authorised force operations by other agencies—until this point in time they have not been able to do so. When you look at situations in Indonesia, in the Philippines and in other parts of the world, the lesson from the Bali bombing is that an extraordinary amount can be achieved through cooperation between Australia's security and policing forces and the appropriate security and policing forces in the region and amongst our allies. That is what this bill enables. It enables Australia to participate in the planning of activities which involve authorised force to protect, to preserve and to prevent. Those are the core elements, and that is what we have to do.

We face a threat unlike anything we have faced before. We are a target, not because of any specific actions but because of who we are. As we have seen, whether it was the Philippines, Indonesia, the Middle East, Tanzania or Kenya, numerous countries have suffered from direct actions against them despite the fact that they were not involved in Iraq and they were not involved in Afghanistan. Actions have been taken against countries because al-Qaeda will base its activities on opportunity and capability. So we have to deal with that by confronting them head-on. At the same time, the second thing that we have to do is to make sure that we deal with the communities from which they draw some of their people. We have to do that by emphasising democratisation of wealth and power, by emphasising education and by emphasising joint policing activities. This bill takes a small step and an important step towards protecting Australian Secret Intelligence Service personnel and allowing us to cooperate in the hard security matters with other countries, like-minded countries and those who have genuine concerns. I commend the bill to the House. I recognise that it is an important step in Australia helping to protect itself and to participate in global protection.