Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Hansard source

I must say I feel a bit for the member for Bennelong being sent in to do this today, because politics don't work when it comes to immigration; outcomes and results do. The fact that he is in here putting this motion today, when we've just found out this morning that 80 people have been released into the community who have failed the character test and have serious criminal convictions, and the government has been caught flat-footed and has no response as to how they're going to keep the community safe, just shows you how inept this government is. They had months to plan for this potential outcome, and they have sat on their hands and done nothing. As a matter of fact, they've been focused on everything else rather than keeping the community safe.

The Australian people want to know the answers for how they're going to be kept safe following this High Court decision. What action is the government taking to make sure that the release of these 80 individuals means that the community will be safe? We've read over the weekend in the paper that 30 of them were just sent to a hotel in the suburbs of Perth and no protections have been put in place. They don't know themselves what visas they're going to be put on. It seems that the Western Australia Police were not informed that this was happening. We now know that another 50 have been released into the community. There is no transparency whatsoever from this government as to what they are doing. Immigration is a mess under this government, and the mess continues to grow and grow.

Let's have a look at what else has happened. We found out also—and, once again, there was no transparency—that, in September, 11 illegal maritime arrivals were sent to Nauru.

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