Jason Wood (La Trobe, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Customs, Community Safety and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

And I myself am a former police officer.

Can I say it's actually interesting to follow the member for Melbourne representing the Greens. In my entire time here, since being elected in 2004—and I'm sure the member for Bonner will back us up here—I've never heard the Greens ever support one piece of ASIO legislation or one piece of national security legislation. They have never backed the coalition when it comes to law enforcement, and, when it comes to the opposition, I'm sad to say that the majority of times the Labor Party has had to be dragged kicking and screaming to it.

I'd just like to also take up the point of the character test. The character test, for those who don't know, is where the government determines if a person's visa should be revoked because of their character. It's pretty much based on criminal grounds. They've either committed an offence, as the member for Petrie, the assistant minister, said, where they've been imprisoned for a term of 12 months or more, or they've committed a sexual offence against a child, or, the next part, where they're involved with a criminal organisation or association such as an outlaw motorcycle gang.

The great news is: the coalition, the Liberal-National government, has booted out over 4,000 people who've committed crimes listed under the character test. The biggest danger would have been to have had a Labor government and the member who would have been the immigration minister if Bill Shorten, the member for Maribyrnong, had become Prime Minister. Here I'll go to an article which was in the Courier Mail on 6 September 2018. It reads:

A CONVICTED murderer with a 40-year criminal history had the backing of the office of a Queensland federal Labor MP, which repeatedly tried to stop his deportation.

The office of Shayne Neumann, Labor's would-be immigration minister—

so he would have been immigration minister—

knew about John Desmond McAteer's violent, drug-fuelled crimes, but wrote to the Immigration Department three times offering a reference to help stop him being kicked out of Australia.

The official correspondence on Mr Neumann's letterhead and signed by—

an electorate officer—

… shows the representations included helping McAteer find "evidence of his good character".

I go further into the quote:

"John calls into the office … to lend me poetry books, provide me copies of his poetry or simply as a courtesy when out and about," …

Can I make the point that, when it comes to protecting our borders and deciding who stays in our country, it shouldn't be based on poetry, whether you read it or whether you create it. That's completely wrong.

Now we have legislation in the Senate which, again, was not supported by the Labor Party and definitely was not supported by the Greens: the character test. We've tried to change the character test so that the offence is no longer based on the time. It's no longer based on somebody doing 12 months in jail but based on the actual crime they commit: crimes against a person where it's a potential punishable offence of two years or more, sexual offences or—and this is really important for the independent members here—breaching an order made by a court or tribunal for a person protecting another person. What we're talking about here are family violence orders. If a person is on a visa and commits the crime family violence, they should not remain in the country. Sadly, this is being blocked by the Labor Party teaming up with the Greens. When it comes to the law, I make this point: the Australian people are always best in the safe hands of the National and Liberal parties, who form a strong government to protect Australian citizens.

See this speech in context