Trent Zimmerman (North Sydney, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection. Will the minister update the House on the steps the government has taken to protect Australians from dangerous non-citizens? Is the minister aware of any alternative approaches?

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

I thank the honourable member for North Sydney for his question and his passion, which we all share, for keeping our country as safe as possible. It is the case that this government has cancelled a record number of visas of non-citizens. They are people who were involved in all sorts of crimes, there is no question about that. There has been a dramatic increase over the last 12 months, particularly compared to the last 12 months that Labor was in government.

It is indisputable, of course, that there are significant links between the CFMEU and outlaw motorcycle gang members.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

This of course gets the Labor Party excited and they interject on those occasions. Do you know why? $10 million comes from the CFMEU into the coffers of the Australian Labor Party over recent years, and the CFMEU seek to defend the bikies because the bikies provide the muscle on the building sites, kicking out hardworking subcontractors who go there to employ other Australians, to provide for their small businesses and to do the work they have been paid to do. We have a militant union, supported by bikies across the country, closing down worksites this very day, as reported by Renee Viellaris in The Courier-Mail today. This demonstrates the depth of involvement between the CFMEU and the Australian Labor Party and outlaw motorcycle gangs.

People might ask why this Leader of the Opposition would not stand up to the CFMEU. They might say, 'Why do you tolerate the behaviour of your officials? Why do you tolerate the behaviour of this hired muscle on building sites?' Because it increases the cost of units. When young Australians go to an open house this weekend, to a unit that they may not be able to afford or that they have been saving up for, they know that that unit is more expensive because they have seen building costs increase as a result of the involvement of the unions and bikies.

All of these people opposite who receive money from the CFMEU and the other unions can bleat all they want, but the facts remain the same. There are good unions in this country. What about the Shoppies? What if the Shoppies employed the bikies to go into Woolies, Coles and IGA and started upturning grocery aisles and muscling up to the poor shop assistants at the counter at the front of the store—would you find that acceptable? Would you find it acceptable for the bikies to be roaring in there showing off their tattoos and bashing customers as they are coming in because they should be going down this aisle and not that aisle? That is what this Labor Party has been reduced to. This weak Leader of the Opposition is completely owned and operated by union bosses across the country. He demonstrates every day that he will do anything for union bosses and nothing for the workers.