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

I thank the member for Berowra for his question. I know he has experience in the law and in understanding the law and how it operates in relation to the deportation of foreign criminals.

It's true to say that for over 1,200 days now the Morrison government has pursued improvements to the Migration Act to increase our ability to deport foreign criminals. Indeed, we've sought this before every election, and we've asked the parliament for the ability to do it for so long now that every member of this House has had the opportunity to understand what is before the parliament—what it does and doesn't do and how it operates.

That's why it's disturbing to hear consistently that people still claim a lack of understanding about what the government intends in relation to the Migration Act. In fact, in 2019—I'm happy tell the House that 2019 was an election year—before that election, in relation to this bill, the Leader of the Opposition told 6PR that this bill was a 'good idea'. That was before the election on the radio. After the election, Labor and the Greens voted twice against it in the parliament.

Now we are in 2022. Today we've been advised—1,200 days in—that Labor now supports this bill again. That's what we've been told today. That's an unconfirmed report so far, but the government does intend to put this bill into the House today, and the test for the Leader of the Opposition is to abandon his Greens allies finally and come into this parliament and vote on it. If you've voted twice against it, will you now come into this chamber and vote for it? That's what the people of Australia want to know: will you take public safety seriously? It isn't good enough to hide in your office and put it through on the voices and send it to the Senate, when you know we've run out of time, potentially, to pass this bill. It's important, if you are going to change your position at the last minute with the impending election this year, that you come into this chamber, put your money where your mouth is with your members, side with public safety and vote in favour of this public safety bill.

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