PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you very much. Your Majesty, Excellencies, thank you all for your participation in our Special Summit and I want to thank all the representatives of the security agencies from around the region that are present with us here today. You keep us safe.
I want to acknowledge my Ministers, the Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, the Home Affairs Minister, Peter Dutton and the International Development Minister, Senator Connie Fierravanti-Wells, thank you all.
Our first duty as leaders is to keep our people safe. Over the past 40 years, our region has seen the most extraordinary growth, the most rapid growth in the history of the world. We’ve seen remarkable change. It’s now occurring at a pace and scale utterly without precedent.
But at the same time, we’re seeing threats to the rules-based order from terrorism. Threats that are as global as any threats we have seen in years past. It’s in that context that we see ASEAN as an essential security partner for Australia.
Our ASEAN friends and neighbours share our interest in regional peace. They share our commitment to respecting international law and the rules-based order which underpins our way of life, secures our prosperity and safety.
Now, our unrelenting focus must be to keep our people safe.
So we must remain united in the face of terror in all its forms. In a relatively short period, we have seen attacks in the United Kingdom, in Iraq, in Iran, in Egypt, Pakistan, Afghanistan, recently in the Southern Philippines, with ISIL-affiliated terrorist forces occupying for a while, the city of Marawi. We have witnessed the Armed Forces of the Philippines in their courageous battle to liberate Marawi City and we know that numerous other successful disruptions have occurred throughout our region in recent years.
The nations of ASEAN have consistently stood up to extremists. Yet terrorists persist and the threat is a real and significant challenge for us all.
The horrific acts of a small minority of terrorists who defame and blaspheme the Islamic faith have cast a dark shadow across our world.
They have sought to sow discord by their perverted and nihilistic interpretation of Islam, to provoke hatred between Sunni and Shia Muslims and to drive a wedge between Muslims and non-Muslims.
Our best allies in the war against this scourge are the vast majority of Muslims - around the world, around the region, here in Australia - and their leaders. Leaders like President Widodo of Indonesia, Prime Minister Najib of Malaysia and the Sultan of Brunei, all here with us this afternoon. They highlight how important it is for us to strengthen our resolve to counter the corrupting message of ISIL and their fellow travelers.
It won’t be an easy fight, nor will it be a quick one. It’s made more complex because our adversaries’ methods and tactics are constantly evolving.
We must evolve too.
That’s why we are continually reviewing and adapting our laws and our approach to operations to thwart those who seek to do us harm.
Reacting is not enough. We must, we will, through our united efforts, stay ahead of this threat.
Now, terrorism is a truly global threat, as digital as it is dangerous. It harnesses technologies which have been the source of so much progress and enlightenment, for their own dark and destructive ends.
It’s not so long ago that only states and big companies had megaphones powerful enough to address a nation. Now a tweet or a YouTube video can reach millions if not billions, and do so in seconds. Billions of people now have in their pocket a device that can connect them to everyone else in the world. It’s worth reflecting on the speed of this technological change. The first iPhone, the first real smart phone, was produced in 2007. That’s only a little more than ten years ago.
Now, we all see the revolution that’s presented.
It means we have a new generation of criminals and terrorists who are attempting to divide us by exploiting platforms that these were designed to bring us together.
The use of social media and encrypted messaging applications is a challenge for us all and one we must tackle together. So, it was a very important step forward when the G20 leaders agreed to work with the private sector to protect our families, our communities and made a clear statement that the law that applies offline must apply online. We cannot allow the cybersphere to be a lawless territory.
Now, we all have a vested interest in each other’s security. We all have a vested interest in each other defeating terrorist movements wherever they arise. Just as the terrorist’s networks are transnational, so must be our collaboration and nowhere more so than in the sharing of intelligence.
To that end, Australia will continue to work closely with our friends in the region and beyond.
This means joining international coalition efforts to defeat terrorism at its source and working together to stem the flow of foreign fighters to conflict zones and to manage the threat from those who return.
Although ISIL has lost its so-called caliphate in Mosul and Raqqa, we know that its operational and ideological influence in our region is growing.
Regional ISIL sympathisers no longer need to travel to the Middle East to advance ISIL’s cause, or acquire combat experience.
More fighters will seek to return to our region and they return battle-hardened and trained.
It is vital for Australia and our ASEAN partners to collaborate across borders to ensure that our counter-terrorism legal frameworks are robust enough to provide effective investigation, prosecution and punishment, while being flexible enough to adapt to the changing and uncertain security environment.
The threats that we face – as Tony Sheehan just noted - from terrorism financing in our region, are becoming more prevalent. We recognise that in addition to funding individual attack operations, terrorism financing helps establish and maintain terrorist groups and sustain the networks connecting them through our region.
We also recognise the increased use of non-conventional financing methods including digital currencies, stored value cards, crowdfunding platforms, making it harder to detect terrorism financing. As regional partners we all play a crucial role in combating these disturbing and dangerous phenomenon. Which is why I asked our Commonwealth Counter-Terrorism Coordinator Tony Sheehan, to convene today’s meeting.
Now, the front line in the battle against terrorism in this interconnected world is everywhere.
A terrorist in Syria can provide instructions to an agent in Sydney or Melbourne and we have seen that very, very graphically, as I’m sure Tony has described to the conference here today.
Where detailed instructions about the preparation for the weapon was transmitted over encrypted applications from Syria to an individual here in Australia. This means that an individual can operate at great distance from their controller, operate by virtue of encrypted messaging in a manner that is very hard to detect and not have to connect with a network domestically, making it harder for our security services to find them within our own jurisdictions.
So, we have to be constantly alert, constantly working with our neighbours in the region. The sharing of intelligence is critically important.
As we all know what may appear to be a not especially important, or not especially consequential piece of intelligence, may be the piece that connects the jigsaw for somebody else’s investigation.
Trust, sharing, collaboration is absolutely critical.
Those who seek to do us harm, use technology as innovatively as any of us can. They are able to adapt and move in a very agile way. We have to be as fast and as quick as them.
Now in a few minutes, the leaders of ASEAN and I will witness the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between ASEAN and Australia on Co-operation to Counter International Terrorism. It’s a significant initiative arising from the Special Summit and I want to thank you all for your efforts to make this a reality.
It gives effect to the 2016 ASEAN-Australia Joint Declaration for Cooperation to Combat International Terrorism that I co-signed with ASEAN leaders in Vientiane.
It’s supported by a suite of programs that will be delivered across our region to counter terrorism and violent extremism.
We’ll work together to develop and implement counter-terrorism legislation consistent with international standards and best practice.
We’ll deliver an ASEAN-Australia workshop on using electronic evidence in terrorism and transnational crime-related investigations and prosecutions.
We’ll establish a series of ASEAN-Australia Multilateral Analyst Exchange Programs for financial intelligence analysts.
And we’ll create a series of regional dialogues and forums with ASEAN and Australian law enforcement partners, aimed at combating the threat of terrorist groups.
The Memorandum of Understanding and its supporting outcomes are a symbol of our strength and solidarity as a region.
They represent a further step in our relentless determination to rise up against those who seek to divide us.
Now tomorrow, I will host the ASEAN leaders for our Special Summit. Working together to address regional security issues will be at the heart of our discussions.
That’s why we are here; to fulfil our most important duty, to keep our people safe.
We’re stronger when we work together. Our people are safer when we combine our efforts and cooperate.
I’d now like to invite a good friend, the Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak to offer his remarks and draw this very successful Conference to a close, Prime Minister.