Nola Marino (Forrest, 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 action the government is taking to strengthen the integrity of our migration and citizenship programs? 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

It is very clear that the Turnbull government is the greatest friend the Australian worker has ever had. There is no question at all. You only need to look at the dodgy 457 visa that Labor presided over. I notice this week that the Leader of the Opposition is out there pretending he is the best friend of the worker, but it was not the case when he was the employment minister in the grand, glorious days of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd period in this parliament. As it turned out, the Leader of the Opposition, whilst he is pretending today to be the friend of the worker, presided over a dodgy 457 visa program which saw 40,000 additional foreign workers coming into our country to go into jobs that should have been taken by Australian workers.

Mr Dreyfus interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Isaacs has been warned.

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

So we are not going to be lectured by this Leader of the Opposition.

It is obvious that it has not been a good week for the Leader of the Opposition; I think that is a statement of the obvious. It has not been a good week. His old mate, the member for Grayndler, has been out there correcting him and calling him into line—monstering him when he needed to be. And I see in The Australian that it has been well documented. There is an authoritative piece in The Australian

Opposition members interjecting—

I will not have you rubbishing The Australian newspaper—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Minister the Immigration and Border Protection will resume his seat.

Mr Dutton interjecting—

I have asked you to resume your seat, that's what it is! The Manager of Opposition Business on a point of order?

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, the minister started being relevant. At the moment he is not being in any way directly relevant to the question. I would ask you to bring him back to it.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister needs to tread very carefully; I have a summary of the question in front of me.

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

I think we have established this, and I think it has been pointed out by his colleagues opposite, that this Leader of the Opposition could not lie straight in bed. The Australian public know one thing about this Leader of the Opposition: they know that he cannot be trusted. It does not matter what he says on what topic, this Leader of the Opposition cannot be trusted.

He said to the Australian workers, to the Australian public, that he was a great friend of Australian workers. When he was a union leader he ripped off those workers. We know that as fact, and many of his colleagues opposite, who used to be his supporters—including the member for Grayndler—are now pointing out the many deficiencies of this Leader of the Opposition.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Minister for Immigration and Border Protection needs to come back to the question immediately!

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

In the 457 program that I was asked about in relation to this question—I was asked on 457 visas—the Leader of the Opposition pretended to be somebody he was not when he was the employment minister. That has been demonstrated time and time again in this place—

A government member: We have highlighted it.

And we will continue to highlight it, as we should, because we have been able to knock out that crazy 457 Labor-supported program.

At the same time, I was asked about the citizenship changes. We made an important point in the last fortnight. We have made the important point that we are going to stress a new set of rules for people to become Australian citizens, because we want people to adhere to Australian laws, we want them to abide by those laws and we want people to abide by the laws and values of this country. It is important.

But, importantly—and we are going to spend a lot of time on this—we have not heard any response yet from the Leader of the Opposition in relation to the changes that we have proposed. It says a lot about the character of this Leader of the Opposition— (Time expired)