Michael Keenan (Stirling, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Justice, Customs and Border Protection) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is again to the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship. I refer the minister to article 32 of the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, which states:

The expulsion of such a refugee shall be only in pursuance of a decision reached in accordance with due process of law. Except where compelling reasons of national security otherwise require …

I ask him again: will the minister give an undertaking to this House that a convicted Egyptian jihadist terrorist will be deported?

Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As I have already advised the House and the honourable member, there is a process in place and there is a determination to be made by ASIO in relation to these matters. I will not be answering hypotheticals as to what would occur after a security agency makes an assessment in relation to these matters. But you can be assured that they will make those decisions and advise the government and we will ensure that the Australian people will be safe.

The one thing I will not do is take advice from the those members opposite who were members of the Howard government, who of course have got an extraordinary record on national security. Seven hundred people escaped from immigration detention in two days in June 2000. They unlawfully deported an Australian citizen. They unlawfully detained an Australian permanent resident. They deported an Indian doctor that they falsely claimed to be a terrorist. That is the record of the Howard government. We do not need any lectures from you, I can assure you.