Alex Hawke (Mitchell, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Groom for his question, and I commend his genuine concern about the safety of women and his advocacy for protecting women and children at law. The Morrison government has, of course, had a bill in front of this House for approaching 1,200 days—before the Leader of the Opposition, before the Labor Party and before the Australian Greens—to strengthen the character test and enable the government to deport more foreign criminals from Australia who commit serious crimes against women and against children, and family and domestic violence. So while the Leader of the Opposition has time to go back and look up his school homework, I would ask him to do his homework on this bill. If he did his homework on this bill he would know that these reforms will allow us to deal more swiftly and more quickly when serious crime occurs, thereby preventing more family violence and domestic violence against women and children in Australia. It begs the question: why would the Labor Party oppose for 1,200 days a bill that says the government should be allowed to deport foreign convicted criminals for serious offences? This would have to be one of the things you've opposed the longest and the most in the Labor Party's history, you feel so passionately about it.

I say to the opposition and the Australian community: the Morrison government will not back down from our view that the law needs further reform to deport more foreign criminals and stop them in their tracks when they commit these serious crimes against women and against children in Australia. It's an important issue.

To hear the heckling from the Leader of the Opposition, I have to say: who does he take his instructions from on this issue? We know he is in lockstep with his partners, the Greens. The Greens are the ones who really oppose this bill, and they have dragged the Labor Party and the Leader of the Opposition to this position. Why would the Labor Party continue to oppose this? It's all because of the Leader of the Opposition. The Leader of the Opposition isn't taking an each-way bet on this; he's taking the multi on this. He's on every single position in relation to the deportation of foreign criminals. I say that's not good enough and this government says it's not good enough. If we have to put this bill for another 1,000 days, we will. We believe passionately that the law is important and the construction of the law—

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