Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Home Affairs. Can the minister inform the House how many visas she has cancelled under section 501 of the Migration Act and then deported since she became the minister last year?

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

I think the opposition are really leading with their chin when we just had a report that shows totally shambolic management of the system by those opposite.

Government Members:

Government members interjecting—

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

Order, members on my right! The minister will pause. The Treasurer will cease interjecting. The member for Bendigo! The member for Hume! Before I call the member for Wannon—you will definitely get the call, I promise you—we are 12 seconds into the answer to the question, so I am not sure what the point of order will be. But I will listen to the member for Wannon, and he will need to state the point of order, not give a statement or give his comment.

Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is relevance, Speaker. I wanted to give the minister some time to look at her notes—

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

Resume your seat. The Minister for Home Affairs is 12 seconds into the answer. She will be heard in silence. There has only been one point of order taken, and there won't be another one.

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

The number of cancellations performed by ministers in our government in the time we have been in government—that is, personal cancellations by the ministers—is more than those cancelled in the last two years of the former government.

Opposition members interjecting—

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

Order, members on my left!

The Leader of The Nationals is warned.

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

The number of section 501 cancellations is broadly consistent across the last few years between our government and the last government.

Opposition members interjecting—

I know it's tough to hear. It really was incompetence, guys. It really was just sheer incompetence—

Opposition members interjecting—

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

Order! The member for Mitchell is warned.

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

and I'd just encourage the opposition to consider that there are good and bad ways to manage their borders. One of the things that we're really focused on is making sure that, instead of having to rely consistently on deportations, we are actually stopping people from coming into the country to begin with. What you'll see is that we have had very strong success in using the better networks that I've described to the parliament to prevent criminal syndicates from coming in and to prevent people who have fraudulent documents from coming in, and that is the approach that we're taking.

To the more general point, it is a little outrageous for the opposition to come in and make these aspersions about the government. I will just say that we have just received a report—a shocking report, 44 pages—that is an indictment of the Leader of the Opposition's record. Whatever one may think about me and whatever one may say about me, one thing I am not is a hypocrite. What we saw is that for the last few years we had the Leader of the Opposition walking around this country, beating his chest, puffing himself up and telling us all what a tough guy he was. Instead, he was cutting immigration and compliance numbers in half.

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

The Manager of Opposition Business on another point of order.

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

The point of order, again, is on reflections on a member. We have been seeing the same tactic from this minister all week. She takes a report and then she goes from that to a series of offensive reflections—

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

There is no point of order.

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

and she should not be permitted to do it. It is a breach of standing orders.

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

The member will resume his seat.

The Minister for Veterans' Affairs will cease interjecting.

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 Manager of Opposition Business is having difficulty because other members of his front bench are jumping on relevance within 12 or 13 seconds of an answer starting. Instead, he's falling back on this idea that there's some improper motive. The Leader of the Opposition knows, if he wants to make a personal statement and contest the clear facts that the minister is putting to the chamber, he can do that after question time.

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

I'm going to ask the minister to make sure she's not reflecting on members and to keep her answer relevant to the question.

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

Let's review where we are in this debate. We have just had a 44-page indictment given to our government of the record of the opposition leader running this system. What that report shows us is that, because of the failures of the Leader of the Opposition, we have had widespread instances of sexual abuse, of human trafficking and of the exploitation of workers around our country. This is objectionable on its own, but what makes it twice as bad is the fact that the person sitting opposite me tried to build a public reputation on a complete falsehood. The truth is that this report shows not only that we have a broken migration system but that the opposition leader is 100 per cent a complete fraud.