Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

It was all too hard for Minister O'Neil and Minister Giles, who, by their actions, have shown themselves to be incompetent in their portfolios. They have dithered and they have dallied. They have made excuse after excuse. They make excuses today, in relation to the woman assaulted in South Australia. They make excuses today in relation to the minor who's been allegedly assaulted. And meanwhile, what happens every day? There comes release after release.

If the government had acted earlier and moved to introduce a preventive detention regime as soon as the High Court decision came down a month ago—as the Leader of the Opposition, Peter Dutton, called for—the outcome may have been different. Make no mistake: this is a tragedy, born of a catastrophic failure of the Albanese government, and the government alone must be held accountable.

It is also possible that many of the individuals who have now been released never needed to be released in the first place. The NZYQ case related to a single individual. The orders made on 8 November concerned a single person. But, for some baffling reason, without the reasons for the High Court's decision, they decided to get ahead of the High Court, and the Albanese Labor government started releasing rapists, murderers, paedophiles and a contract killer—detainees, in bulk, before the High Court had even had a chance to put pen to paper. They could have used the intervening time to get ready. They could have ordered an assessment and evaluation of every single detainee. They could have put in place arrangements for contingencies. But they did nothing. With every passing day now, as we learn more about how the government handled this case, the scale of their incompetence and mismanagement becomes clearer.

NZYQ was a serious child sex offender. He raped a 10-year-old boy. The coalition cancelled his visa, with the result that he was put in immigration detention following his sentence. This was the case that was before the court. But guess what? The reason we're standing here today is the path followed by the Albanese Labor government, because, when this case came before the court, the Labor government made concessions, and those concessions are the key to why we are standing here today.

The government made concessions in a 'special case'. That is a document that records the facts put before the court, and the special case contains what the High Court called two important facts. The court put significant weight on the two concessions that the Albanese Labor government made on 30 May. The first was that NZYQ could not then be removed from Australia. The second was that there was no real prospect of the plaintiff being removed from Australia in the reasonably foreseeable future. They made those concessions on 30 May even though they hadn't actually finished making inquiries about whether he could be resettled. Why in God's name would this government make those concessions and set the High Court on a certain path if they were not true? Seriously, they were continuing to make inquiries with other countries. As has been revealed by the High Court reasons in August, when they realised the magnitude of their stuff-up, they started making inquiries with Five Eyes partners.

Let us make this clear. They conceded there was no way NZYQ was going to be removed from Australia because no-one would take him. Then, after making that concession which forced the court's hand, they decided to go and check. Maybe, if the responsible ministers had done their jobs, we would not have landed where we are. Maybe this case would have been unnecessary.

The Albanese government has proven time and time again that it cannot be trusted with matters of national security. It has shown utter contempt for Australian communities who, rightly, want the government to come clean on where these criminals are located and what they have been convicted of.

That is why we are going to be moving an additional amendment to strengthen the provisions of this bill. We will do this by moving an amendment requiring the minister to report to parliament any time one of these dangerous individuals is released into the community. This amendment will go some way to providing this much-needed transparency from this hopeless, hapless government, and I hope the government and the crossbench will see fit to support what is a modest but sensible amendment and to start cleaning up the mess the Albanese government has made.