Phillip Thompson (Herbert, Liberal National 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 Australian workers from dangerous noncitizens, including outlaw criminal gang members, and any association they have with militant unionism?

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

I thank the honourable member for his very important question. There's a silence that's gone across the other side, because some of them might know people within the CFMEU—some of them might even have received money from their CFMEU mates for their campaigns. Any chance of that? No.

So the government's taken a decision—in fact, under the Prime Minister's former role as immigration minister—in December of 2014 to tighten the rules in relation to the way in which we can cancel, on character grounds, the visas of criminals in our country. And we have been able to cancel 4,500 visas of people who are here as noncitizens and who have committed crimes against Australians. I want to update the House, because importantly—listen to this figure—we have now cancelled the visas of 229 outlaw motorcycle gang members. That is great for our country because these people are involved in some very bad activities. They are the biggest distributors of ice, amphetamines and otherwise unlawful substances in our country. They have very definite links—you wouldn't guess who to—

Government Members:

Government members interjecting—

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

The CFMEU. The CFMEU. The problem, of course, is that, with cancelling the visas of those bikies, it now appears that there is a shortage of hired muscle to go onto the building sites for the CFMEU. This is a great dilemma. Could you imagine? They get the call at the bikie clubhouse. They're in the middle of an import that's come in. They're cutting the drugs up and this afternoon they've got a shift where they're going out to the local milk bar to extort money from mum and dad, the operator, and they get a call from John Setka: 'Could you go around to the local building site, break the arm of a couple of carpenters? They're not paying their extortion money to the local CFMEU rep!' The CFMEU must be paying big money to the bikies for this relationship to continue, given that the bikies are making significant money—huge margins—in the distribution of ice. Yet they still continue their association with John Setka and the CFMEU. I'll tell you what, Mr Speaker, do you know who else is continuing his association with John Setka and his many fellow travellers in the union movement? This Leader of the Opposition. What we know about this Leader of the Opposition is that he's in favour of something, he's against it; he's for something, he's against it. He is no better than the person that used to fill the seat that he now occupies. We know, having watched the Labor Party for many years, that the Labor Party has been happy to take $16 million from the CFMEU. The CFMEU gave $1 million to the left-wing GetUp! organisation. And let me tell you, the Labor Party is led by a weak leader—as weak, at least, as his predecessor. (Time expired)