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

We are obviously looking at the Migration Amendment Bill 2024 very closely. We want to make sure that it is assessed and we want to make sure that there won't be any unintended consequences. There are obviously always deep concerns on our side when it comes to anything this government does on migration. They have made a complete and utter mess of migration, whether it be the amount of people that have come into this country in the last two years—over a million people and growing when we're in the midst of a housing and rental crisis—or what has occurred through the High Court, where the government and the former immigration minister failed to defend the right for a government to protect its citizens and, in an agreed statement of fact, said that, when it came to the detainees that were being held by the government after they had committed serious crimes, there was no likelihood of them being removed from this country, giving the game away. This then saw 150 hardened criminals released into the community. That number has grown now to 224 and continues to grow, and we've now had a further decision in the cascading effect of the government's complete and utter ineptitude and incompetence which has seen ankle bracelets and curfews being removed from these 224 hardened criminals.

Now, we want to help and support the government with keeping the community safe, because that is their No. 1 duty and something they have single-handedly failed to deliver in this term of government. As a matter of fact, they have been so weak and so incompetent when it comes to immigration that we've already seen one immigration minister go. We've seen one home affairs minister go. Now we have one individual trying to do both jobs—home affairs and immigration.

The sad reality is nothing has improved; as a matter of fact, things continue to get worse.

While we think the government needs to act to keep the community safe, we want to make sure the government, for once, is actually getting it right, and that's why we will closely examine this bill in a Senate inquiry.

Debate adjourned.