British prime minister David Cameron has linked controversial new foreign fighter and anti-terrorism laws in both Britain and Australia with the common values of freedom and democracy he cited as the “bedrock” of both societies.

In a speech to the Australian parliament, Cameron said the root cause of extremism was not poverty or social exclusion or foreign policy but rather the “extremist narrative” which had to be “rooted out”, including by government actions to remove extremist material from the internet.

“We must ban extremist preachers from our country, we must root out extremism from our schools, universities and prisons. As we do so, we must work with the overwhelming majority of Muslims who abhor the twisted narrative that has seduced some of our people,” he said.

And he said there was a role for government in removing extremism from the internet.

“We must not allow the internet to be an ungoverned space … In the UK we are pushing (companies) to do more including strengthening filters, improving reporting mechanisms and being more proactive in taking down this harmful material.”

Both leaders defended their proposed laws to deal with citizens fighting with Islamic state (Isis), with Cameron defending new proposals to seize passports and prevent fighters from returning to the UK unless they submitted to screening processes, a step further than laws already passed in Australia.

“What we’re doing is making sure that our police and intelligence services have all the tools that they require to keep people safe in the United Kingdom ... there’s the power to take away people’s passports, the power to stop people travelling and there’s the power to exclude people temporarily until they return under our express instructions, and we’ll be announcing more details of more of our plans later on,” Cameron said.

Abbott said Australia’s intention on fighters seeking to return was “to detain them, to prosecute them and to jail them for a very long time, because the only safe place for someone who has been brutalised and militarised in this way is one of Her Majesty’s prisons”.

Ahead of the G20 meeting attended by both Russian president Vladimir Putin (who has stationed Russian naval vessels in international waters off the Australian coast) and Chinese president Xi Jinping, Cameron urged Australian politicians to stand up to what he described as an “incipient creeping threat to our values” which came from “those who say that we will be outcompeted and outgunned by countries that believe there is a shortcut to success, a new model of authoritarian capitalism that is unencumbered by the values and restrictions we impose on ourselves. In particular, an approach that is free from the accountability of real democracy and the rule of law.”



“We should have the confidence to reject this view and stay true to our values,” he said.

Speaking at a press conference after the speech, Abbott’s criticism was even more pointed.

“Russia’s economy is declining even as Russia’s assertiveness is increasing and one of the points I tried to make to Putin is that Russia would be so much more attractive if it was aspiring to be a superpower for peace and freedom and prosperity, if it was trying to be a superpower for ideas and for values instead of trying to recreate the lost glories of tsarism or the old Soviet Union. In the end, what Russia does is a matter for Russia.”

Both Cameron and the Labor leader Bill Shorten, in welcoming remarks, acknowledged the Aboriginal traditional owners. Abbott did not, but did say that Australia had “an Aboriginal heritage, a British foundation and a multicultural character”.

Citing the two countries’ history of fighting in common conflicts, Cameron said the UK had “no more dependable ally when the chips are down”.

And despite domestic criticism of the time taken by Australia to make a contribution to the international efforts to contain Ebola, Cameron singled out Australia’s efforts for praise - poking fun at Abbott’s recent threat to “shirtfront” Russian president Vladimir Putin as he described an encounter with Julie Bishop on the issue.

“Only last month your foreign minister strode across the room towards me at a summit in Italy. I wondered for a moment whether I was heading for what I’m told we now need to call a shirt-fronting. But, no, Julie, who is a great friend of Britain, said that Australia would add 100 beds to our Ebola treatment facility in Sierra Leone. Typical Australia, always there with action not words,” Cameron said.

On the sidelines of the G20 summit this weekend Cameron will have his first meeting with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi since he was elected in May. He is also scheduled to have a brief meeting - referred to by officials as a “brush-by” - with Putin.

The address will be followed by speeches to parliament next week after the G20 meeting by Xi Jinping and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi.