Stuart Robert (Fadden, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Home Affairs. Will the minister update the House on the steps the government has taken to protect Australians from dangerous visa holders, including outlaw motorcycle gang members? Is the minister aware of any different views that would weaken border security?

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

All Australians know that this government has worked day and night to keep our borders secure to make sure we don't allow the people smugglers back in control, but one of the other significant outcomes for this government is that we've been able to cancel a record number of visas of noncitizens, people who were here in our country perhaps on tourist visas, working temporarily in our country or studying in tertiary institutions here, and have committed serious crimes against Australians. Some people, for example, have committed sexual offences against children or women in our country, and we've cancelled more visas of those criminals in the last 12 months than Labor did in six years. I'm proud of the fact that we've been able to not only cancel those visas but also, on the advice of the Australian Institute of Criminology in research that they've just released, stop 2,975 additional offences being committed by those people had they been allowed to stay in Australia. About 3,000 offences would have been committed by these criminals and, on the AIC advice, that would have been about 1,000 people. So we're talking about 1,000 Australians who would have fallen victim to these criminals had these criminals been allowed to stay in Australia.

One of our principal targets has been outlaw motorcycle gang members, 190 of whose visas we've now cancelled—and they've been deported or are awaiting deportation from our country. They are people who weren't deported—in fact, the Labor Party issued visas to many of these criminals to be in our country, and we've cancelled the visas. It's interesting to note that outlaw motorcycle gang members are the biggest distributors of ice in our country. If you're in a country town, an outer suburban area or a capital city, know that, if your kids are at risk of receiving drugs from the local drug dealer, it is likely that those drugs would have been imported or distributed by outlaw motorcycle gangs. That's not their only pursuit, because we know that outlaw motorcycle gangs are also affiliated with our old friends at the CFMEU. Why wouldn't Labor want to cancel the visas of outlaw motorcycle gangs, the members of whom are affiliated with the CFMEU? About 11 million reasons—$11 million the CFMEU has donated to the Labor Party.

Who is the biggest supporter in this parliament of the CFMEU? Who is it? It's our old friend, the Leader of the Opposition. His links back to the CFMEU, you would not believe: he has, on behalf of the Labor Party, accepted millions and millions of dollars, and don't believe a word he says. It would continue if he was in— (Time expired)