Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Border Protection) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Home Affairs.

Government Members:

Government members interjecting—

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

Members on my right! The member for Blair will pause for a second.

Mr Tim Wilson interjecting—

The member for Goldstein is warned! The member for Blair has the call.

Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Border Protection) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Home Affairs. Was the minister aware that his former colleague and friend who worked in his office as a liaison officer knew the employer of the Italian au pair?

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Home Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

At the time—and this happened in 2015, from memory—there was no employment arrangement in relation to the officer that you spoke of before. As you pointed out, the officer is a departmental liaison officer in my office now, but that's only happened in recent times. It was immaterial—I wouldn't have given it a thought—but, yes, he would know the officer, as Mr Quaedvlieg does. Mr Quaedvlieg was a detective in the Queensland Police Service at the same time as I was. He's been mates with the officer to whom you refer now probably since 2002, I suspect. So there are many other facts that you might want to bring out or that I'll be prepared to at the right time.

Let me say this: I have been very clear, open and honest in relation to all of these matters. Yesterday, I was alleged to have misled parliament. At the end of question time, the Leader of Opposition Business hopped up and apologised to me for the mistake that he had made in making that allegation. No claim that has been put by the discredited person, Mr Quaedvlieg, or his mouthpieces within this parliament have been proven to be correct. I'm not going to be distracted by these personal attacks again, because what they distract from is what I have done in this portfolio and what really drives those opposite to the point of distraction. I have cancelled 3,763 noncitizen criminal visas, including 194 bikies, 648 drug dealers—

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

The minister will resume his seat. The member for Blair, on a point of order.

Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Border Protection) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The point of order is relevance, Mr Speaker. I asked a simple question: whether or not he knew the liaison officer knew the employer of the Italian au pair? It's a simple question.

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

The member for Blair will resume his seat. On this occasion, the minister has addressed the issue, and he addressed it at the start of the question.

Ms Catherine King interjecting—

The member for Ballarat will not give me guidance.

A government member interjecting—

Whoever that is on my right is not helping either.

Government members interjecting—

O'Connor certainly looks guilty, that's true! But I just say to the member for Blair: the minister addressed very much the substance of the question in the first part of the answer. He's now giving context in the rest of the answer. He's completely in order. The minister has the call.

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Home Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I have cancelled 3,763 visas of criminals who have offended against Australian citizens. In the last 12 months, this government has cancelled more visas of criminals than Labor did in six years. We have stopped boats. There were 800 boats with 50,000 people on board. We have got all of the children out of detention that Labor put into detention. We set up the US deal, and we've now got hundreds of people off Manus and Nauru—people that Labor put there. I have cancelled the visas, as I said, of over 500 violent offenders. The Australian Institute of Criminology suggests that we have saved a thousand Australians from falling victim to members of outlaw motorcycle gangs because of the visa cancellations.

If you want to know why the opposition don't want to talk about these issues, understand it's because the Labor Party had a shocking track record on border security in government. They were hopeless. They lost control of our borders and they were weak on visa issuance, issuing visas to bikies and the rest. This government will tidy it up. (Time expired)