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

This matter of public importance is incredibly timely because during question time the Australian Federal Police just issued a media release:

A Sudanese man is expected to appear in Blacktown Local Court today (14 May, 2024) charged with allegedly failing to comply with his visa mandated curfew and maintain a monitoring device.

The AFP arrested and charged the man, 35, yesterday … after locating him in western Sydney.

It will be alleged the man breached the conditions of his Commonwealth visa between 9 May and 13 May … by failing to observe his residential curfew obligations and failing to keep a monitoring device in working order.

The man has been charged with:

The No. 1 priority of any government is to keep the Australian people safe, and what we have seen, time and time again, is the failure of this government to do so. Last week, on Friday, we got the latest data on the government's commitment to keep the Australian community safe after the release of 153 hardened criminals, following the NZYQ case. What that data showed—and it was snuck out under the guise of another decision by the High Court, the ASF17 decision—was that, of the 153 hardened criminals that were released, fewer than half had curfew conditions placed on them and fewer than half had been required to wear an ankle monitor. Do you think we could find out why? No, we could not. We could not find out why—even though there was a commitment given in this place that we would be watching and monitoring and making sure the Australian community were kept safe after those 153 hardened criminals were released into the community—fewer than half had those conditions placed on them.

Last week, I was in Perth. I went and visited Ninette Simons, and Ninette Simons wanted two questions answered. She wanted to know why one of her alleged attackers was required to wear an ankle bracelet and then that requirement was removed. She also wanted to know why, when bail was given to one of her alleged attackers, it was not opposed by the government. They are two fairly simple, straightforward questions. The one thing that she would like is a response to those questions.

Sadly, as we know, there has been complete and utter radio silence when it comes to any of these questions and many, many more. As a matter of fact, as most members know on this side and as we read, to the frustration of those on the other side, the immigration minister went into hiding. Now the question is: Why did he go into hiding? Did he go into hiding because he has something to hide? I think that is another question that everyone in Australia would like answered, because it seems, whenever the going gets tough, whenever there is a requirement for ministers to front up, this minister just goes missing. There have been reports in the media that there is deep concern on the government side because this has interfered with their ability to get a clear budget message out. I understand their concerns with that, but it just shows you how misdirected their concerns are. Their concerns should be with the safety of the Australian people, not with their own budget message. It shows you once again that failure to keep the Australian community safe and to put the policies and procedures in place to do that.

It's not just in relation to the release of those 153 hardened criminals that the Australian community are also getting more and more deeply concerned; there is also the issue of boat arrivals. In the last week we have seen three boat arrivals. In the last six months we have seen six boat arrivals. There are reports today that ABF are holding at sea the people who are on two of those boats while they try to work out what they will do with them. Do we know why? Do we think that the home affairs minister or the immigration minister has been out today, explaining what's taking place at sea? There has been nothing.

Meanwhile, what are the people smugglers thinking? The people smugglers are thinking that we've got a weak prime minister. Had it leaked out on Sunday that the immigration minister would not be in his position come the middle of the year, the people smugglers would have seen an opportunity. We have a weak immigration minister who won't be in his job in a couple of months and a weak prime minister who won't deal front-on with this issue. The Australian people want to know when the Prime Minister and his ministers will front up and start taking these issues seriously.

In question time today we asked the Prime Minister some very simple questions, one of which was: Prime Minister, have you lost control of our borders? Did we get a response? No, we didn't. We followed that with two more questions, one of which was: How many people have drowned at sea since Labor took office? We know, sadly, that the last time Labor were in office we saw people drown at sea. We saw hundreds drown at sea. No-one wants to see that happen again. We don't know whether it's happening again or not. We also do not want to see, in particular, women and children in immigration detention again, and we asked a question of the Prime Minister about that today. Did we get a response from the Prime Minister to those three very simple questions? No, we did not.

This is the problem that we have at the moment: the government is not taking border security seriously. It is not taking seriously keeping the Australian community safe, and the Australian people are worried. Everyone has seen that a growing issue is the concern in the Australian community about their safety on the street. Not in all cases and not in all areas can the federal government reassure the Australian people, but in certain ways it can, and in these two important ways the government is not doing its job.

I say to the Prime Minister: please, take your No. 1 priority seriously. Please, let's see in the budget a recommitment to putting back the funds that you stripped from Operation Sovereign Borders to make sure that that surveillance on the sea and in the air can take place, because the Australian people want to feel safe again.

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