Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Dutton and his team have had a lot to say in the last couple of weeks about hardened criminals being released into the community, but it seems that they don't apply the same standard to their own senators. I was surprised to see weekend reports that a Liberal senator urged the Albanese government to release a child sex offender from immigration detention in circumstances similar to those the coalition is now politicising. In a letter to the immigration minister, Senator Dean Smith asked for a man convicted of having sex with a girl aged between 13 and 16 to be transferred from Christmas Island to the community. What have we heard from Mr Dutton? Absolute silence. Contrast that with Mr Dutton's remarks in 2021 when confronted with a similar situation. He said, 'Why would a member of parliament defend anyone who has been convicted of paedophilia?' For Mr Dutton there is one standard for the government and a different standard for his own people—utter hypocrisy. When it's one of his own calling for offenders to be released into the community he has nothing to say.