Karen McNamara (Dobell, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection. Martin, from my electorate in Dobell, recently contacted me regarding his concerns towards our nation's security. Will the minister please update the House on what steps the government is taking to ensure that those seeking refuge on our shores will not pose a threat to our national security?

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration and Border Protection) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you very much to the member for Dobell. It is a great question and reflects the interest and concern that all people in this place have, in relation to making sure our borders are protected. But all of us living in the community regularly speak to people who are concerned about what they see within our region, within Europe at the moment, in relation to people movements, in relation to terrorist attacks, which we have seen in Paris and elsewhere around the developed world. This government has, as a first priority—as it should—the protection of our people. We want to make sure that we can keep our borders secure so that we can keep our communities safe.

On a daily basis the Prime Minister and I and other ministers discuss what is important—the priorities that we need to meet to make sure that we can keep the Australian public safe. I am very proud of the fact that in Australian Border Force we have increased the number of counter-terrorism unit officers now at our eight international airports from 80 to 100 officers. They have been involved in offloading 315 passengers from planes, they have been involved in 109,000 real-time assessments and they have now been involved in 7,200 patrols within those airports—and that is this financial year alone. So they are involved on a day-to-day basis in looking at outbound passengers and looking at inbound passengers not only to make sure that they can keep the travelling public safe but also to make sure that they can keep the broader Australian public safe, and this government makes no apologies for that. We want to make sure that we have free and easy access at our airports for the travelling public, but we want to concentrate our efforts on those people who would seek to do harm here in Australia or overseas.

I am also proud of the fact that this government has increased the number of people that we have cancelled under section 501 of the Migration Act—that is, people who have failed the character test. We have cancelled the visas of 64 noncitizens who had been involved in organised crime, predominantly members of outlaw motorcycle gangs. These people are involved in the distribution of ice and amphetamines, drug running, extortion and other criminal activities, and they do not deserve to be in the Australian society. We have taken a very determined decision to make sure that we can exclude those people from our shores so that our communities can be safer, and we will continue that hard work. I have said before in relation to the increased humanitarian support we are providing as a government that, in addition to being the most generous country on a per capita basis in taking people from war-torn regions such as Iraq and Syria, we will continue to conduct those tests, including biometric tests, so that we can give safe refuge to those people that are most in need and not allow refuge to those people that would seek to do us harm.