Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

to stand up and make sure that his government spoke with one voice. But did they do that? No. And what the Australian public has seen—and what has shocked the Jewish community in recent weeks, since 7 October—is that this government is speaking out of both sides of its mouth. Let's call it out for what it is. You've got Senator Wong in the other place, the foreign minister of this country, who is at odds with her Prime Minister. The caucus is split right down the middle. And the Australian public sees that this is a government where the wheels are quickly falling off. It's given rise to social disharmony in this country. There are Jewish kids who are afraid to go to school. We've got groups who are going into predominantly Jewish communities in our country to try and provoke them into a response.

And this Prime Minister is flying off overseas again, when he should be staying in this country to deal with the issue. 'What could I do?' he says. What could he possibly do about it? Well, Prime Minister, I've written to you, and what you should do is to consult with the premiers and the chief ministers and immediately convene a meeting of the National Cabinet, to get a better understanding of the police response and to understand what the security and intelligence agencies are providing, and then to collate that information and to have a coherent response which provides support and an underpinning to security for people of Jewish faith in this country, when they need it most, in their hour of need. This Prime Minister has gone missing.

I never thought that I would see, in my lifetime, a repeat of the horrific scenes which were seen, and that we've read about, during the course of the Second World War. But to see people of Jewish faith cowering in their homes, being dragged from cupboards out into the street—when children are still abducted and still held hostage, this Prime Minister needs to stand up and to be united with the Jewish community. And he's not. The words have been qualified, the message has been divided and the Australian public has looked to the Prime Minister and not identified this man compared to the man they voted for in May 2022, less than 18 months ago.

What compounds it is the fact that, in the last 48 hours, we learned that the hapless minister for immigration has taken a decision to release 83 hardened criminals—rapists, paedophiles, murderers; he won't disclose the rest of the detail—to live at large in the community with the Australian public, and he's done nothing about it. The government knew this case was being decided in the High Court. They have the benefit of the advice of the first law officer of this country, the Solicitor-General, and countless KCs at their disposal. The High Court had given indications in relation to this matter. A competent minister would have dealt with this matter by way of legislation at the first available opportunity, and he would have rushed that legislation through this parliament so as to prevent the 83 from going out into the community with the significant potential of committing more offences against the Australian public.

One primary charge, as I say, for this Prime Minister, is to keep the Australian public safe. There is legislation now being drafted; we saw in a trainwreck interview by the defence minister, the Deputy Prime Minister, this morning that there is legislation being drafted to address this issue. We hear from Senator Wong in the Senate today that there will be legislation introduced into the parliament. So we know now that, when the government have been called out and they're under pressure, there is actually a legislative response available; we now know that. Why is it available now but it wasn't available before the 83 were released into the community? The minister refuses to answer that question. It turns out that this minister has released these dangerous criminals into the community without a visa. Some of those have been left out, and you saw his evasive, tricky and incompetent responses today. Did the Prime Minister pull him into line? Not a chance, because this Prime Minister is as weak as water, and the Australian public are working out what a fake and a fraud he and his government have turned out to be.

The Australian public at the moment know that they've got a government who has made every situation in their lives more difficult. We know that the cost-of-living pressures are putting enormous pressure on families because the government has made incompetent decisions in two budgets. We now know that in many parts of the country Australians are suffering because of a crime crisis in their communities; we know that. How does this Prime Minister respond? He goes off overseas again. Prime Minister, don't leave this country until you have dealt with these issues. Don't hop on the plane again to the United States. You've just met with President Biden—an incredibly important relationship, but you've just met with the President. The first responsibility for you, Prime Minister, is to be here and take care of the Australian public. Don't continue to abrogate your responsibilities.

How can the government release 83 of the people who have significant criminal records and keep in detention nine when they are all subject to the same finding from the High Court? How can that be the case? How can you not have legal capacity or legal capability to keep the 83 in but you can to keep the nine in? Has this been explained by the Prime Minister? No, it has not. So the Prime Minister should not leave this country until the National Cabinet has been convened to provide assurances and support and comfort and safety to people of the Jewish community. That is the first priority for this Prime Minister—not to get on yet another plane and head overseas.

Prime Minister, don't leave Canberra and don't leave this parliament until legislation has been passed which will give effect to providing safety to the Australian people. What is happening is these people with significant criminal records, having committed significant rapes and assaults and murders against Australian citizens, are being released into the community, and you stand condemned.

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