The Independent Member for Denison, Andrew Wilkie, will call on the Prime Minister to urgently intervene and reinstate the Australian Federal Police presence at Hobart Airport.
He will deliver the speech below in the House of Representatives at approximately 1:45pm today and ask the question of the Prime Minister in Question Time at approximately 2:15pm.
“The need for a permanent Australian Federal Police presence at Hobart is all the more pressing now in the wake of recent tragic attacks in Europe,” Mr Wilkie said. “We know that the terrorist threat is primarily from home-grown terrorists and that soft targets like smaller domestic airports are especially vulnerable.”
“It was a bad decision in 2014 to pull the AFP out of Hobart Airport. It will be an even worse decision if the Prime Minister refuses to put them back when he’s just boosted the AFP’s funding by more than $500m.
“The Federal Government claims that Tasmania Police will fill the gap but they’re not stationed permanently at the airport and it takes them an unacceptably long time to reach the airport.
“Frankly, in the circumstances with all that we know and all the warnings that have been given, if there is a tragic incident at Hobart Airport then the blood will be on this Federal Government’s hands.”
Download speech and question …
90_Second_statement_31_May_17.docx
QWN_31_may_17.docx
Andrew Wilkie, Independent MP for Denison
