Michael Keenan (Stirling, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Justice, Customs and Border Protection) Share this | Hansard source

The MPI that we are discussing today is about the consequences of the terrible failure of the Labor Party to control our borders since they came to office. Members will know—and of course this will be revealed later tonight in the budget—about the cost to Australian taxpayers of what is possibly Labor's most significant policy failure since arriving on the treasury bench in 2007.

We also know, and we know very well, about the enormous toll that it has taken on people who have sought the services of a people smuggler and drowned in the attempt to come to Australia. I want to highlight some of the other consequences of this failure to control our borders—issues that have not been raised as extensively in this place, but very serious issues that go to national security in Australia.

Clearly, when you have a circumstance of criminals being in charge of who comes to Australia, and when there is enormous weakness on our borders, criminals will seek to exploit that weakness in the same way that if you leave your doors unlocked that criminals will seek to exploit this sort of weakness if they come to burgle your home. It is the same if you are not controlling your borders—criminals will eye the opportunities that are available to them through that policy failure. When you have over 40,000 people having arrived here courtesy of people smugglers, it is clearly impossible for us to rigorously assess the background of everyone who arrives in this way. I want to make clear that the vast majority of people who arrive using the services of a people smuggler are not in this category. But, clearly, when you are talking about such a large number of people, the opportunity for people of bad character to arrive by paying a people smuggler is very real and we would be naive and we would be foolish to overlook the fact that criminals will exploit the border weaknesses that have resulted from the Labor Party's policy failures.

I wanted to talk about a few cases in particular that have been highlighted in the media, but that we have not had an opportunity to highlight in the parliament. I want to call on the government to use the parliament to explain the circumstances surrounding three cases that I am going to raise. The three I am talking about were highlighted in a report in the West Australian toward the end of last month. They are people who have arrived here by paying a people smuggler. One is an accused Egyptian terrorist, one is an alleged Sri Lankan murderer and the third is an Iranian who is apparently wanted for drug trafficking in his home country. The cases were revealed in a report in the West Australian.

What is most concerning about this is, first, the fact that people of this character would have used the services of a people smuggler to get here. Second, and most important, is the manner in which they have been treated since they have arrived. That report revealed that the accused Egyptian terrorist was the subject of an Interpol red notice, the highest level of alert from Interpol. That should have said to Australian law-enforcement authorities that this was somebody who needed to be apprehended on arrival in the country. A red notice is essentially an international arrest warrant.

Mr Dreyfus interjecting—

He was in detention. I will get to this now. It would be very good if the minister would actually—

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