Melissa McIntosh (Lindsay, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I must say that I feel quite uncomfortable with the raising of the voice of the previous member, the Independent, especially with a female deputy speaker in the chair when we're talking about women's safety. I think there are other ways to conduct ourselves in the House.

A picture tells a thousand words and the picture before us this evening is the Labor Party and the Greens in a nice little coalition that is protecting foreign criminals when it comes to the safety of Australian women and children. When we have a serious public safety issue that has gone unresolved for 1,200 days—that is, over three years—as a government it is our responsibility to the Australian people to continue to prosecute the case to the Labor and Greens alliance that politics needs to be set aside and that the safety of women and children from non-Australian violent criminals should be put first. It's about the safety of Australian women and children. This is what the Australian people expect. This is what my community of Lindsay expects. In fact, I received a message this evening from one local woman who said, 'I can't believe we are debating over whether women deserve to be safe.'

So I commend the minister for immigration for his relentless pursuit of what is right to get this bill through the House for the second time against a barrage of opposition from the opposition and their partners in crime, the Greens, to protect Australians—mums, sisters, friends and daughters. How can anyone argue against that? How can anyone argue that a young woman driving to her boyfriend's house in the early hours of the morning shouldn't be safe as she steps out of her car to go to his house? She should not be threatened with a knife and the words, 'Be quiet or I will cut you.' Under our current laws, the convicted criminal from Mauritius received 18 months imprisonment and a 12-month community corrections order. The initial refusal of his visa on character grounds was set aside by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, determining that he did not fail the character test. A young woman was attacked at knifepoint and threatened with her life by a citizen not of Australia but of Mauritius, and his character was considered good enough for a visa. It's hard to believe but very true. This is why we need change, and this is why Labor needs to stop mucking about and to support this bill.

We don't accept violence against women by Australian citizens. As someone whose LGA of Penrith has one of the worst records of domestic violence in the state of New South Wales, along with the Central Coast—which I know Deputy Speaker Wicks knows, as it is her home LGA—there is no way I could stand to let a noncitizen get away with serious violence against women because of a loophole in our laws. I don't understand why Labor has been so opposed to protecting our women for so long. I don't know why Labor is putting the feelings of the New Zealand government above the protection of our women. Labor needs to support this bill, not just wave it through to the Senate for them to weaken it there. But I guess being weak is a core strength of Labor.

So here I stand to support the Migration Amendment (Strengthening the Character Test) Bill 2021 in the strongest of ways, a bill that aims to protect Australia's national security interests by cracking down on convicted criminals who have committed violent or sexual offences, a bill that aims to protect Australian women. Since I came into this place in 2019, 4,000 visas have been cancelled. That is 4,000 serious criminals who have been kept out of the Australian community. That is almost four times more in three years than the whole of the previous Labor government. If we look at the numbers since 2014, we have cancelled or refused 10,000 visas. These aren't good people: nearly 1,400 were sexual offences, including over 900 for child sex and child pornography offences; 500 were armed robbery offences; 1,700 were drug offences; and over 200 were murder offences. But then there are the men—the men who wield knives at women, men who punch women in the head and men who beat their partners—who have been getting into our country and retaining their visas because of a legal loophole. I hope Labor agrees with us, after 1,200 days of refusal, to stop this today and to support this bill.

So what is the bill about? The bill aims to broaden existing discretionary powers to cancel and refuse visas under the character test. It's the character test where criminals and their lawyers are finding loopholes. Through this bill, we are allowing discretionary refusal or cancellation of a visa for noncitizens convicted for a designated offence of at least two years imprisonment. And since the power will be discretionary, the government will have flexibility to focus on serious crimes perpetrated by criminals who pose a risk to the Australian community.

Labor has tried to argue that this sets a threshold too low for visa cancellation. Too low? I refer back to my story about the young Australian woman who was held at knife point and had her life threatened. And I remind the House that those who have committed serious, violent and sexual offences are captured by this bill. Labor, again working with their partners in crime, the Greens, are being weak on security and weak on protecting Australians from violent offenders, and it is just not good enough. What makes it worse is that this bill has been before parliament for 1,200 days. That is over three years of inaction by Labor and the Greens. And now they want to weaken it in the Senate so that we don't upset New Zealand by sending their convicted criminals back home. You tell that to Australian women, and you tell that to the women in my community of Lindsay!

The bill before the House is a proportionate and responsible bill to ensure foreign criminals who have broken the law are stopped from committing further injustices on Australian soil. It implements strong protections to ensure that Australians are kept safe by improving the character test provisions of the Migration Act. Australia is the best country in the world. We need to ensure that those who live here are protected from those who seek to go against our national interest. This bill, the Migration Amendment (Strengthening the Character Test) Bill, demonstrates the Morrison government's ongoing commitment to the safety and protection of Australians—its commitment to the safety and protection of Australian women—and I commend this bill to the House.

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