Cameron Caldwell (Fadden, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tonight I want to highlight the incompetent performance of the Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs, well supported in his incompetence by the Minister for Home Affairs and, of course, the Prime Minister.

An opposition member: Five minutes won't be enough!

Yes. My colleague has pointed out that five minutes may well not be enough to dive deeply into this depth of incompetence. But I thought we'd start the evening with just a small word game. Can someone tell me a five-letter word that keeps people safe? I know you're all thinking 'drone', but it's not a drone, because we learned this week that they're actually grounded; they're not supervising any criminals or potential criminals. We certainly know it's not 'Giles'. No, it's definitely not Giles. That is not a word that we would associate with keeping Australians safe. The five-letter word that we can rely on to keep Australians safe is 'Peter', surname Dutton.

At the next general election, Australians are going to be looking for competency in government, and they will look to the coalition. Australians, unfortunately, are shocked but increasingly unsurprised that this Labor government have placed the needs and priorities of foreign criminals ahead of their own. As a result of Labor's issuing of ministerial direction 99, dangerous criminals have been allowed to stay in our country. Direction 99 is one of the Prime Minister's own making, and the hapless minister for immigration is merely the guy holding the pen. The Prime Minister owns this debacle on direction 99, because it was his undertaking to the former prime minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern that led to the weakening of our laws. The Prime Minister can't deflect; he must take responsibility. He was proud of the deal that he struck at the time. It's no good blaming the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, blaming the Department of Home Affairs or trying to shift responsibility. There were continuous representations to Australia from the then Prime Minister of New Zealand, and this Labor government gave in.

Under Labor's direction 99, serious criminals have been able to stay in our country. Under some pressure, it would seem Labor now have realised the error of their ways and will significantly refine, revoke, change or issue a new direction in place of direction 99. So why is a change needed if the Prime Minister is trying to say that there was nothing to see here? Well, I can tell you the whole thing is an absolute disaster. Last year the minister released 153 criminals into the community, including child sex offenders and murderers. This was after being caught flat-footed by the High Court decision, without legislation ready to fix the problem. We know that at least 30 of these criminals have since been charged with new offences. Labor's failures on community safety are simply unacceptable, and the minister must be held accountable.

The Department of Home Affairs warned the minister that his change could lead to more visa cancellations being overturned, but he ignored this warning. Media reported this week that a man had the cancellation of his visa reversed due to direction 99, despite having been convicted of eight counts of rape, 48 counts of sexual assault and three counts of indecent treatment of a child under the age of 16. When asked about whether Minister Giles was warned about the consequences of these changes, the Department of Home Affairs admitted he was warned that the direction 99 changes could lead to more visa cancellations for noncitizen criminals being overturned.

Yet the lies and the blame games continue. We heard from the Minister for Home Affairs that Minister Giles is a good minister. I'm quite honestly not sure how she draws that conclusion based on what we've seen, because Australians have been stolen from, assaulted and raped following the incompetence of Labor's key decision-makers. In another thought bubble, on Friday Minister Giles said criminals are being monitored by drones. The AFP don't appear to have any knowledge of it, nor do the state police forces. Either Minister Giles accidentally or casually disclosed a previously secret drone program or it's not operating at all. Whatever's going on, one thing we know for sure is that Labor can't be trusted on national security issues. It's a 'drone goal' for sure. The Prime Minister should sack the minister for immigration or the minister should just step aside in shame.