Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Well, Senator Ayres, your reputation hasn't been smeared in the national media over the last few days, so it's easy for you to crack jokes—not necessarily good jokes—but the fact of the matter is that it's pretty unseemly, Senator Ayres, when you get a senior minister of the government actually getting into the gutter, like we saw over the last week. I reiterate the calls of the opposition leader that the Prime Minister should step in—well, he shouldn't have to force the senior minister in the other place to actually give an apology to the opposition leader. He shouldn't have to do that. It's gutter politics and it's unacceptable. For those in the gallery, all it is is the government trying to deflect from its own mismanagement with respect to the immigration system and trying to put the spotlight on the opposition. That's all it is. It just shows how weak their management of this issue has been. It's extraordinary stuff.

I read the reasons that were handed down recently for the High Court's decision. There was absolute incoherence in terms of the federal government's approach. It was totally incoherent. Let me explain. In relation to the particular case of the convicted child rapist there was an agreement between the government and the rapist's counsel that the government had taken all the steps it could take by the end of March to deport this individual but there was no reasonable prospect that this individual could be deported. That was the agreement that was reached. Then, months later, Minister O'Neil was engaging on the run with various governments to try to deport this individual. If you were still making efforts to deport this individual, why, for goodness sake, would you come to an agreement with the applicant in March that there was no prospect of deporting the individual? It doesn't make sense.

Something actually happened in the background in that case. There are two ministers involved: Minister Giles and Minister O'Neil. Clearly something happened behind the scenes in relation to the ramshackle way in which the government managed that case. Clearly something happened. The committee I chair, the Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee, earlier today was denied the opportunity to have an inquiry into that matter—to actually seek the truth and to find out what actually happened in that matter. We've been denied that opportunity because the Labor Party does not want the references committee that I chair to engage in that inquiry. Why? Why don't you want the Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee to undertake the work that it's obliged to undertake by this Senate? Why? What are you hiding? What are you concerned about? Do you think the evidence that we identify and that's presented to the inquiry will put you in a bad light? I guess everything is relative, isn't it? You're in a pretty bad light in terms of the total mismanagement of this situation over the last six months.

The role of this chamber, the Senate, is to act as a check and balance and to scrutinise. This was clearly a matter of great concern to many Australians, including a resident of my home state of Queensland who was raped by one of these individuals who have been released into the community without any protection for her. She is concerned that her safety and the safety of her family is jeopardised by the release of this individual. Where was the concern for her? When the Senate wishes to scrutinise these matters the government shuts it down. They don't want it to be scrutinised at all.

Senator Brown, I'll take that interjection. What is disgraceful to the nth degree is the government that has lost its control of immigration. A convicted rapist has been released into the community and there were clearly no checks and balances in place to protect the victim in my home state of Queensland. That is what is a disgrace, Senator Brown.

The people in the Australian community don't much care what your interjections are, and they probably don't much care what my words are. But I'll tell you what they do care about; they care about their safety and security. No Australian should be put in a position where they get a phone call from a member of the Queensland Police service, as reported in the Guardian newspaper, who apologises—and apparently the member of the Queensland Police Service was absolutely distraught that he had to advise this victim of rape in my home state of Queensland that the perpetrator of the crime against her had been released into the community under this governments watch, with no appropriate checks and balances or controls placed upon her to protect the victim and her family. That is what is a disgrace, Senator Brown. Now we're seeing this legislation being introduced at the eleventh hour. The government had from June—I will go through it again—July, August, September and October, and now here we are at the end of November—30 November, the last day of November—and they are in a huge rush to introduce this legislation to try to fix the mess that they have presided over during the last five months. It's an absolute disgrace.

In the meantime, they're throwing as much mud as they can at some of my colleagues, including my good friend Senator Dean Smith—and those on the other side of the chamber know what I'm talking about in terms of my good friend Senator Dean Smith. They're throwing as much mud as they can against senators on this side of the chamber with respect to actions which they have taken in good faith. It's absolutely disgraceful. Senators in this place understand the quality of Senator Dean Smith's character, and what we saw during the course of this week was really plumbing the depths and the nether regions of what is acceptable in terms of political debate in this country. It was disgraceful what was said and how Senator Smith's bone fide, good-faith representations have been used in the context of this debate shamelessly. There wasn't even any remorse or hesitation—it's just absolutely shameless.

The position that we are in is one where the government has completely lost control of this policy area—one of the most important policy areas in terms of the government's obligations to keep the citizens of Australia safe and secure. The government has completely lost control of the legislative agenda. They were not prepared for the High Court decisions that were brought down. They were totally unprepared. Their response to those High Court decisions has been totally incoherent, and my constituent in Queensland has been faced with the awful situation where her convicted rapist was released into the community, and her expectation that he would be kept in detention indefinitely has not been met. She's stunned. That's the result. That's the human cost, the human face of the mismanagement of the government with respect to how it has managed these issues. It is absolutely unacceptable.

Senator Ayres will keep interjecting. The people of Australia don't much care for Senator Ayres's interjections. All they want is a responsible government that can manage immigration policy properly and achieve some sort of law and order, safety, and security for the Australian people. They don't care much for your interjections, Senator Ayres. They don't much care for your interjections. All they want is a competent government, and that should not be too much to ask.