Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

The people that were resettled in New Zealand were probably not criminals—not to the same extent as those you have released. You never even waited. After the High Court decision was handed down, you never waited to see what the determination was and the full reasons for their decision. That came nearly two weeks later. You acted to release these people into our society, knowing that they were criminals. You have made it unsafe for a lot of people, and the Australian people are concerned about who is now living amongst them. We've seen the cases of the ones who have now been caught because they have committed crimes. Since you released these people from the detention centres, the parliament passed a law that they should wear ankle bracelets. But isn't it funny that a few of them said, 'We're not wearing them'? One actually absconded; he's gone. Another three refused to put them on. Yet what happened to them? Why weren't they held? Why weren't they detained? The law says that they should wear the ankle bracelets. You put that in there. That was an agreement between the government and the opposition, and I supported it. But no. You released them into society without the ankle bracelets. You're really worried about the Australian people, aren't you?

What I don't understand now is the decision by the High Court and your inaction in relation to making sure that society was safe after you released these people. Minister, where does this now leave us? Because of your inaction, we've now got numerous boats coming across to Australia. One has landed on our shores. I know that other boats are being turned back. One boat has landed with 12 people in it claiming refugee status in Australia. Will the High Court ruling now impact those people? How long will you be able to keep them in detention—until we rule whether they are really refugees or economic refugees, whether they are of good character, have jailable sentences or are criminals? What do you intend to do about this? If they are of the same character as the others, what is now going to happen to these illegal boat people who, under your government, are going to cost us billions of dollars? Are you in the same boat—pardon the pun—where you cannot contain them for an unreasonable amount of time?