Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

The only people who have paid a price for the government's shocking oversight of our justice regime last year have been the victims of the criminals who were unnecessarily released onto our streets. There were 149 foreign criminals released last year as a result of a court case which caught the government completely unprepared. This case had been going on for many months, and we now know that the government had been briefed for many months ahead of it that there was a risk of losing this case—there always is in court cases—and the consequence of the case being lost would potentially be the release of over 100 criminals onto our streets.

Despite that risk, the ministers involved in this portfolio area, Minister O'Neil and Minister Giles, did absolutely nothing to prepare themselves for the worst outcome. In defence of their unpreparedness in the weeks following the court decision, Minister O'Neil claimed that the advice she had was that they would win, so therefore they didn't bother coming up with a plan B. That admission alone should have been enough to have Minister O'Neil sacked. You should never, as someone responsible for such a serious issue as our nation's justice system and keeping criminals off streets, be planning for the best and hoping that it all works out. You should be planning for the worst and then hoping for the best. Minister O'Neil failed to do basic diligence on behalf of the Australian people. She failed her duty that she swore to do: to protect the Commonwealth. She should have either resigned or been sacked from her position.

Of the 149 who have been released, 24 either have been charged or have breached visa conditions. Why is it that, after so long, we still have had no accountability from this government? What does it take for someone to pay a price for the clear errors that have been made? Effectively the government have admitted these errors, because not long after saying that they couldn't do anything about it, that they couldn't have been prepared, they rushed through legislation last year to try, in a belated way, to fix up their mess. There were clearly errors made here, and there were significant errors—enough for people to lose their jobs.

Other Australians have been harassed, have been subject to criminal action because of the government's errors. As I said, those Australians have paid a deep price that, for them, will last for the rest of their lives while the ministers here seemingly get off scot-free and pay no penalty whatsoever. It is not the right example to set in this place. It is not the right approach to restore the trust and confidence of the Australian people in our parliament, where they see their elected representatives making mistake after mistake and paying no price for it.

As I mentioned, 24 of the 149 foreign criminals either have been charged or have breached their visa conditions. That's one in six of those released—so far! We're only a few months down the track. One in six have failed to obey the law since their release. That alone shows the grave risk that faces the Australian people by having these criminals released onto our streets.

The other thing here is: why, after rushing legislation through last year? And we on this side of politics cooperated with that. We helped to facilitate the passage of those bills late last year. Those bills were sold to us as a solution that would allow the rearrest of some of these 149 foreign criminals; we would be able to put some of the worst risks to the Australian people back behind bars to protect Australians. Months later, we still haven't had any of them subjected to these orders that we approved. What is going on?

The criminals who have been released continue to commit crime, yet there has not been a single action from this government to put these people back behind bars given the strong risk they pose to the Australian people. We don't even get basic knowledge of where they are around the country. We only find out in dribs and drabs, like we did just before question time today. According to the Herald Sun this afternoon, yet another one of these 149 foreign criminals has been arrested and charged with fresh sex offences. He is a 43-year-old man from Richmond who has been accused of sexual assault and stalking offences that occurred, apparently, in Richmond on Tuesday. The Australian people deserve better. There should be ministerial accountability. Those ministers should have been gone last year and definitely, given what we've seen today, should be gone today.

Question agreed to.