James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Government Waste Reduction) Share this | Hansard source

I anticipated that I would need to commence my remarks by refuting some form of defence from the lead government speaker to the central proposition of this matter of public importance. In fact, I half expected I might be addressing comments from the immigration minister himself, because I assumed that he would take the opportunity to defend himself and stand up for himself. But he can't even get a member of his own government to address any form of defence of his actions, his behaviour and his conduct as immigration minister. Frankly, that says more than any attempt the government could make in this debate to defend or make excuses for this minister and this minister's performance.

The first duty of any government is to keep our nation safe and to keep the people of our nation safe—to defend our nation and our interests. This minister has singularly failed in his responsibility, in his commission of office, to do that through the powers and responsibilities that he is given as our immigration minister. It's his job to make sure that we have a credible framework for controlling who comes into this country. And when the wrong people are in this country and they need to be removed from this country, it is his job to keep Australians safe in the process. As we know, anything but that has happened. Unfortunately, each and every day we open the newspaper to another horrendous story. And even though we know there are 150-odd people who have been released because this government failed to anticipate the circumstance that we find ourselves in, it still shocks me that, day after day, when they have an opportunity to correct their mistake, take responsibility for it and make the changes that we constructively suggest to them to keep Australians safe—to change the minister and to put someone else in charge who is actually capable and competent to keep people safe—this government prioritises politics, the protection racket for the minister and avoiding embarrassment of the government over the safety of the people of this country. That is absolutely shameful.

As the shadow minister has articulated in his contribution, there are some simple things that need to be done immediately. I would say, first and foremost, remove the minister and appoint a new one, because this minister can't bring himself to admit any form of fault or failure or, in particular, appeal this ludicrous direction 99, which is putting Australians at harm.

There is a community expectation for governments not to be obsessed with their own longevity, but to be obsessed with the interest of the people of this country. And you know what? Good governments tend to get re-elected. This government is so obsessed with politics and so frightened of admitting mistakes that are so obvious to everyone else. But they can't see the wood from the trees on this issue and they can't see the simple reality that people want action and they want change.

The Prime Minister could take action. He could remove this minister. He's standing by this minister, and that says a lot, because there's a very long list of pretty fundamental reasons why this minister should have been removed well and truly before now. It's gotten completely ridiculous at this point. We won't have the Prime Minister coming in here defending the minister, we won't have the minister coming in here to defend himself and we won't even have a speaker from the government given the opportunity to say, 'Hey, opposition, you guys have got this wrong. He's doing a great job, and let me tell you why.' They can't even bring themselves to say that they stand by him. Maybe he's for the chop sooner than we know, and those opposite have been given the inside run on that and we'll find out sooner rather than later, but it seems to be taking an inordinately long period of time for the Prime Minister to do the simple thing that everyone expects him to do and get rid of this guy. He can't even get a single member of his government to stand up in the House of Representatives and defend him when given the opportunity in this matter of public importance.

So I say to the Prime Minister and I say to the government, 'Please, please, please, do yourselves a favour as much as everyone else and get rid of this guy. Please appoint someone that is actually going to take the job seriously, get briefed properly, anticipate risks of court decisions that will put Australians at risk and make the decisions that are necessary to keep Australians safe.' Every day that you don't do that and every day that you stand by this guy—or at least pretend to or purport to stand by this guy—you're leaving the people in the community in harm's way and you will not be rewarded at the next election for that, I can assure you.

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