PM’s ploy: Shorten soft on terrorism

Scott Morrison has accused Bill Shorten of being “happy” for terrorists to plot attacks on Whats-App.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison speaks to the media during a press conference at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Friday. Picture: AAP

Scott Morrison has accused Bill Shorten of being “happy” for terrorists to plot attacks on Whats-App as the government seeks to regain control of the agenda ahead of what will be an explosive final sitting week of the year.

The Prime Minister sent a clear signal the government wasn’t inclined to accept any amendments that watered down proposed encryption laws targeting terrorists and paedophiles, and declared the Opposition Leader should not hold national security to ransom.

The encryption bill will be one of several legislative tests of the minority government’s authority in the House of Representatives this week, with at least two crossbenchers needed to support the proposal to avoid an embarrassing defeat in the chamber.

“Labor are quite happy for terrorists and organised criminals to chat on WhatsApp, leaving our ­security agencies in the dark,” Mr Morrison said.

“There is no excuse for this type of weakness.”

The Prime Minister said the bill must be passed this week, as intelligence and security agencies warned of a heightened terrorism risk. “We are not keen to have it watered down. They are sensible measures and it should be done by Christmas,” he told The Australian yesterday.

“But we are starting to see Labor’s true colours coming through on national security. Bill Shorten wants to sideline national security. They have had plenty of time to consider this bill … and my strong message is that the public is seeing the true colours of Bill Shorten on national security.’’

Mr Morrison is due to return from the G20 summit in Buenos Aires early this morning ahead of the final parliamentary sitting week of the year.

The government is also expected to table its “big stick” legislation in the parliament this week, which would give the Treasurer power to force energy companies to sell ­assets if they were price gouging or being uncompetitive.

A spokesman for Josh Frydenberg confirmed yesterday that the government intended to introduce the bill this week.

Australian Federal Police Commissioner Andrew Colvin wrote to the joint committee on intelligence and security to express concern about Labor’s proposal to split the encryption bill.

“The AFP is very concerned such a purpose-based approach would pose a variety of significant issues that would challenge the ­effectiveness of the regime and undermine the policy intent of the measures,” Mr Colvin wrote.

Opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong said Mr Morrison wanted a fight over encryption laws “so as to distract attention from things like Julia Banks moving to the crossbench”.

Her party’s refusal to back the government’s bill followed pressure from IT and technology companies that claimed the laws would not work and could expose Australia to international hackers.

Senator Wong said the bill as it stood would make Australia “less safe”, citing evidence from encryption company Senetas that it would compromise the security of citizens, businesses and governments and make it easier for cyber criminals and terrorists to target and break into systems.

“We have said we are willing to pass a bill by Thursday which gives appropriate powers to national sec­urity agencies, with appropriate oversight, to target criminals and people being investigated for child-sex crimes,” Senator Wong told the ABC’s Insiders program.

“Scott Morrison doesn’t want that. He wants a fight, and I think compromising Australia’s national security for those reasons is really beneath the Prime Minister.’’

Additional Reporting: Rosie Lewis