Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Home Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

It's always a pleasure to get a question from the member for Stirling. He is a very popular choice over that side, I've got to say, and he has asked a very, very important question. The Home Affairs portfolio receives record funding each year because we're able to manage the budget well. One of the principal tasks of the Home Affairs portfolio and all of our agencies within the Home Affairs portfolio is to keep Australian children safe. There is a lot of work that we have done through the cancellation of visas of sexual offenders, people who have committed offences against children. There is a lot of work that the Australian Federal Police do with their international counterparts and with their state and territory counterparts to keep Australian safe.

Today I want to commend in particular the work of Nicole Rose, the CEO at AUSTRAC, and all the investigators and analysts at AUSTRAC who have worked tirelessly to make sure that they too can deliver on the Home Affairs portfolio pledge to keep Australians safe. The Morrison government will always make decisions to keep our borders secure and our community safe, and we are adamant that that will continue to be the case. The incidents in relation to Westpac are, as we know, completely unacceptable. It follows on the work that AUSTRAC did to work with the CBA to highlight the failures in the CBA model. A $700 million fine resulted. CBA have paid that money to the Commonwealth, and so they should have. It is clear that the Westpac bosses, through their negligence, have given a free pass to paedophiles, and there is a price to pay for that. That price will be paid, and we have been very clear about it.

The work that AUSTRAC has undertaken, as we have seen with CBA and Westpac, will continue with other corporations who continue to go outside of Australian laws. Our laws in this country apply equally to all, and we want to make sure that those companies, those entities and those organisations that breach their obligations under the law pay a penalty for it. We have no more important undertaking as a government than to keep Australian safe. We will continue to do it. It is clear that the Westpac bosses have failed that obligation. We will make sure through AUSTRAC and the other entities within the Home Affairs portfolio that people who commit those egregious offences or breaches of the law will pay a serious price.

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