Sam Rae (Hawke, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the minister for Home Affairs. The Nixon report identified numerous examples of exploitation and abuse enabled by a broken migration system. What sorts of abuses have been enabled by the failure of the system?

Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Home Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Hawke for his question and for his brilliant advocacy for his local community. I have talked to the House a number of times this week about the horrific exploitation and abuse that was allowed to occur after the opposition leader ignored report after report into failures of our migration system while he was the responsible minister. The member asked for some examples of this.

Our border protection agencies recently identified a criminal syndicate that operated a network of brothels. They were recruiting and employing vulnerable foreign nationals who entered Australia under false information. The syndicate in this case controlled the workers through debt bondage and intimidation. The behaviour was highly abusive—essentially, modern slavery happening right here in our country. Another investigation identified a human trafficking ring that was bringing sex workers to Australia using professionally produced bogus documents. These are just a couple of examples of organised crime targeting vulnerable people, facilitated by failures the opposition leader oversaw in his broken migration system.

One of the central aspects of our government's response to these challenges is operation Inglenook. Inglenook is an ABF-led, multiagency taskforce which has stopped both of the criminal enterprises that I talked about today. In the case of the brothel network, for example, when the syndicate head, his partner and a key recruiter travelled offshore, their visas were cancelled, preventing them from ever returning to Australia again. Operation Inglenook has had a fantastic success—83 people have been refused clearance at Australian airports and 45 have had their visas cancelled offshore, which has prevented their arrival into Australia.

Managing our borders is a very complex task, and our government is committed to building and maintaining a proper system of border control—a system that was laid waste to by the Leader of the Opposition. We have built up resourcing for this system. We have reorganised our department to focus on these problems, and the results have been outstanding. The approach of the Leader of the Opposition was very different. We know that he likes to talk a big game, he likes to beat his chest and he likes to say that he is tough on crime.

Hon. Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister will pause and resume her seat for a moment. The Minister for Pacific Island Affairs and the Minister for Climate Change will cease interjecting immediately so I can hear from the point of order.

Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Government Services and the Digital Economy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, the standing orders are very clear: the minister is entitled to be asked and to speak about matters that is that she is responsible for as a minister. She is not entitled to engage in a historical trawling through things that happened many years before she assumed ministerial responsibility.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will hear from the Leader of the House.

Mark Butler (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

To the point of order, the minister is clearly responsible for implementing the findings of the Nixon report, and whether they like it or not those opposite will have to hear more about what our government intends to do to clean up the Leader of the Opposition's mess.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! I ask the minister to return to the question. It was specifically around what kind of abuse the report has revealed, so she's entitled to compare and contrast. But her whole answer can't just be about what the former government did, so I want to bring her back to the question.

Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Home Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I've spoken to some of the instances of abuse and exploitation that the Nixon review very clearly articulated. The Nixon review also very clearly articulated the root cause of that problem, and the root cause of that problem was the Leader of the Opposition, who was minister at the time. What he did was talk a big game and go around the country pretending he was tough on borders.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Manager of Opposition Business, on a point of order?

Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Government Services and the Digital Economy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, the standing orders are very clear. Standing order 90:

All imputations of improper motives to a Member and all personal reflections on other Members shall be considered highly disorderly.

This minister has been breaching that standing order repeatedly, and she ought to be brought back to compliance with the standing orders.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will hear from the Leader of the House.

Mark Butler (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I think the Manager of Opposition Business confuses incompetence with improper motive.

Opposition members interjecting—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order. The Leader of the House needs to stay on the point of order, not give a comment. To assist the House, I ask the minister to return to the question so she can conclude her answer. If she continues down that line again, she will be sat down.

Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Home Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I support what the Leader of the House said. No-one is denying that the Leader of the Opposition may believe what he is saying. He wasn't too hard on borders, he wasn't too soft on borders, he was just plain incompetent.