Steve Fielding (Victoria, Family First Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will go through this again. Quite clearly, a person who comes to this country for a holiday, commits a violent criminal offence or illegally overstays their visa and gets put into detention has the government wanting to wipe their debt. This is not a person who is a refugee. This is not a person who has fled their country in fear of losing their life. This is a criminal. This is a person who has no respect for our laws. But the government now wants taxpayers to cough up for the bill rather than chase this person for it. Ordinary Australians are being asked by the government to make sacrifices and tighten their belts. I find it astonishing that the government wants to make sure this bill gets through without any changes. I will be moving changes and I am hoping the coalition and those on the cross benches will be supporting them. This is not right. I am reasonable and I am more than happy for genuine refugees to have their debt wiped. In actual fact the previous government did it and so does this one.