Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Migration Amendment (Character Cancellation Consequential Provisions) Bill 2016. The bill makes a number of amendments to give full effect to the earlier substantive amendments that were made by the Migration Amendment (Character and General Visa Cancellation Act) 2014.

What were those amendments originally designed for? It was to send a message that if you are a noncitizen of this country and you engage in criminal and antisocial conduct, you will be deported. I will go through the five main points in the provisions of the earlier 2014 act. Firstly, they provide for mandatory cancellation of the visa of a person who is serving a prison sentence where the minister is satisfied that the person fails the character test as they have a substantial criminal record or have been found guilty of sexually based offences involving a child. A noncitizen with a substantial criminal record or a noncitizen that has been found guilty of a sexually based offence involving a child does not deserve the enormous privileges that come with living in this country.

Secondly, the previous bill broadened the power to refuse or cancel visas by including additional grounds on which a person will not pass the character test. Thirdly, the previous bill provided that a person does not pass the character test if there is a risk—rather than the previous 'significant risk'—that they would pose a danger to the Australian community. That was simply lowering the standard. Quite simply, someone that poses a risk of danger to the Australian community and who is a noncitizen does not belong in this country.

Fourthly, the previous bill amended the definition of a substantial criminal record so that a person sentenced to terms of imprisonment totalling 12 months or more, rather than the previous two years, would not pass the character test. We have seen the lenient sentences of many of the judges in this country. The message is: if you engage in criminal activity and you are sentenced to 12 months or more in jail and you are a noncitizen, your visa will be revoked and you will be deported. Fifthly, the amendments allowed the minister to set aside decisions by a delegate or a tribunal and cancel a visa if the minister thinks it is in the national interest. Ministers of this parliament, quite correctly, should be able to cancel the visa of a noncitizen if the minister thinks that is in the national interest.

The provisions in this bill that we are here debating today will simply give full effect to the policy of this government of mandatory cancellation of visas, by putting beyond doubt that a noncitizen who is the subject of a mandatory character cancellation decision is available for removal from Australia if they do not seek revocation within the relevant time period or are unsuccessful in having their visa reinstated. That is the message. If we are to maintain social cohesion in our country and if we are to continue to give people from all parts of the world the opportunity to be citizens of this country, then this is necessary policy.

Despite the member for Fremantle's comments, I understand that the Labor Party is supporting this—although the member for Fremantle's speech really puts a doubt over that. In the shadow minister for immigration's speech on this bill, he said:

… it is becoming clear that the government—

That is the coalition government that I am a member of—

is utilising ministerial discretion to cancel visas on character grounds to a greater extent than was the case under the former Labor government.

Well hear, hear! This government will stand up for the rights of Australian citizens to go about their lawful business without being subject to the criminal activity of unlawful citizens.

How timely it is that we are debating this bill here in parliament today. We saw last weekend on the streets of Sydney and Melbourne a multicultural war, with hundreds of people rioting in the streets of our two major cities. I have a report from news.com.au which I think is worth reading to show the chaos on our streets. It says:

Melbourne's annual Moomba Festival descended into carnage as hundreds of rival gang members brawled in the CBD … Armed with knives and guns, about 200 members of the Apex and Islander 23 gangs—

Ethnic based gangs with many members who would be noncitizens—

were heard chanting "f**k the police" before launching an all-out brawl that turned Federation Square and surrounding streets into a riot zone.

Police were forced to use batons and pepper spray to break up the warring street gang youths as they punched and beat each other.

A number of people were treated for injuries in the city and taken to hospital after the clash …

These are not the scenes that we want to see on our streets. That is why this legislation is so important. We want to send a message, as the government, that that type of conduct by ethnic gangs—by noncitizens—is completely unacceptable and will result in their deportation.

It was not just Melbourne; it was also in Sydney as well on the weekend. The same article says:

In Sydney, a bloodthirsty brawl erupted outside popular CBD concert venue the Metro Theatre …

It was described as the worst rioting in a decade. The article continues:

The Daily Telegraph reports that two women were seen shoving each other and screaming "f *** the police, f*** them dogs" as they were being subdued.

We have a serious problem in this nation if we give people all the wonderful opportunities that our country offers and yet they come here with so little respect and they disrespect our police in such a manner. This is why we need the provisions to deport them. If you think that I am being tough on these people—and it does not matter what nation they are from—who should be deported, in my support I will quote a recent interview by Mark Colvin of a Deng Adut, a gentlemen who was one of our young Australians of the year and a prominent south Sudanese born lawyer. He called for deportation. He said:

… many of them—

those engaged in the riot, his fellow South Sudanese expatriates—

would be better off if the Australian government sent them back to South Sudan.

He said:

… the best way to help them is actually to consider deporting most of these kids, that are there to cause problems for themselves, their parents and the community at large, and wider Australian community.

He went on:

Because everyone wants to be in peace. Everyone wants to—no-one wants to be assaulted, no-one wants to be in trouble. Everyone want to go home when they come from work, go home and sleep—not being assaulted.

He was then asked this question by the interviewer:

You're saying that if there are young south Sudanese men who are causing problems they should be deported?

DENG ADUT: Yeah.

     …      …      …

It is harsh, but what is, what is there for them, what is life is it there for them? Being in jail every now and then? Go to jail every two months, every three months, every six months, every seven months?

Some of these spend last at least, least 10 years going before the court, so what's the point of keeping these kids here? What's the point?

They're not adding anything to this economy, they're not helping their parents, and they're not helping anyone. And my opinion is basically—it is not working.

We offer enormous opportunities in this country, and Deng Adut—I hope I pronounced that correctly—is an example of the opportunities we give to people from overseas, to refugees. His story: someone who came to Australia illiterate, penniless, a teenager traumatised physically and emotionally by war in South Sudan. In his speech on Australia Day, to show the opportunities this country offers, he said:

I had to wait until I became an Australian citizen to know that I belonged. As an Australian I am proud that we have a national anthem. It's ours and to hear it played and sung is to feel pride, pride that we are a nation of free people.

He continued—this is Deng Adut, someone who escaped from the war in South Sudan:

Australia opened the doors of its schools and universities.

Australia educated me. How lucky I became. How lucky is any person who receives an education in a free land and goes on to use it in daily life.

     …      …      …

I was lucky. You are too. Freedom from fear is about acceptance of our common identity. For we Australians in 2016 freedom from fear is almost taken for granted. We had better take care to keep it.

That is what we are doing in this legislation. We want to make sure that Australian citizens feel free to walk in any part of the country. We want to make sure that the scenes that were seen in our cities, our capital cities of Melbourne and Sydney, over the past weekend never happen again. Those people should be arrested, they should be sentenced and if they are noncitizens they should be deported. We owe it to the refugees and to the migrants of this country who have come here and want to live their lives in peace and to take hold of the opportunities our country offers. That is why the coalition will stand up and we will take tough action on this. We will send a message to noncitizens that if they are engaged in criminal activity, their visa will be ripped up and they will be deported. With that, I commend this legislation to the House.

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