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

Again, I don't have the details of the 91 cases, and I'm not certain that they all involve people who are in Australia on visas. I want to fact-check that before accepting that that is the case.

But, as I said, when it comes to visas that are granted to people to visit Australia, they come on conditions. Of course, any visa holder has responsibilities to the people of Australia while they're present in Australia. Ordinarily what would occur is that if someone is convicted of an offence—and I don't know whether any of these individuals have been convicted of offences. But if that were to occur then they would ordinarily serve their sentence in an Australian prison and, once they've served their sentence, that would be the time at which they would be deported, that their visa would be cancelled. Ordinarily, as I understand it, we don't cancel people's visas before we put them in jail, if they've committed an offence. They would serve out their sentence in a jail and then, on release, that would be the time that their visa would be cancelled.