Bob Katter (Kennedy, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the minister for migration. The Daily Telegraph in October 2014 reported that Young in New South Wales is the unofficial Muslim capital of the outback. With a population of 7,000, Arabic is the second language, and it is home to 400 Middle Easterners. Yesterday, Haisem Zahab from Young was arrested on allegations of assisting ISIS to develop long-range missiles. Last week, the Federation of Islamic Councils' president reportedly stated domestic violence is 'the last resort'. Will the minister listen to his own backbench and the United States and ban visa holders from North Africa and the countries between Greece and India, exempting, of course, persecuted minorities, namely Sikhs, Jews and Christians—persecuted or not! (Time expired)

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

I thank the member for his question. There are a few parts to his question. The first is in relation to the arrest of a man in Young. I have no comment to make in relation to that, because, obviously, it is a matter being investigated by the New South Wales Police and the Australian Federal Police. I want to pay tribute, though, to the Minister for Justice and the investigators from the Australian Federal Police, as well as ASIO and other agencies, who were involved in that investigation to keep us safe. They are allegations before the court, and I do not have anything further to say in relation to that.

The member asked about the population of Muslims in Young. It is important to point out that the vast majority of people are working hard in the community and supporting, for example, the abattoir that can only stay open because of the local Muslim population. It provides support to local farmers and to the local economy. They are hardworking people. They are doing the right thing. Like 99 per cent of people from the Islamic community in this country, they are doing the right thing. Where we find the one per cent and where the one per cent are doing the wrong thing—people who seek to do harm to our country—we will come down on them hard. We have done that in the past, and we will continue to do that in the future. We are working with intelligence agencies and governments around the world to make sure that we can identify threats here and overseas. We will stamp out ISIL. We will stamp out those people who seek to do us harm. We are not going to change our migration program, because we have one of the best border protection systems in the world. That has been acknowledged by many countries. We have been able to deal with threats as they present at our border. We have stopped boats, and we have been able to stop threats at our border. We will not step back from the tough decisions that we have had to make, because they are in our national interest; that point needs to be recognised as well.

The honourable member's final point was a reference to comments made by the Islamic councils' president last week. I refer him to comments that I made on the Ray Hadley program on 2GB. I said:

Well, this is Australia and if you come to our country you abide by our laws and one of the things that sets us apart from many other nations is our respect of women.

We all want our daughters to succeed, to be in loving relationships, get a good education, get a good job and be the equal of any man in this country and it is unacceptable and I'm sure it is unacceptable frankly for the vast majority of the Islamic community as well.