Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration and Border Protection) Share this | Hansard source

Going to a couple of points made by the member for Blair in relation to the AAT, I have been very clear about the government's objective. Having secured our borders, stopped drownings at sea, closed 17 detention centres and got 8,000 children out of detention, having restored integrity to a process I want to make sure that those people who are living in our community are abiding by Australian laws. If somebody is here as a non-citizen and that they commit a serious offence against an Australian citizen then they can expect to have their visa cancelled and to be deported. Some people have made comments around the AAT process—the six Iranians et cetera. My response in general has been that I do not care if you are an elected representative, as an occupier of public office you have a public to answer to. We live in a democracy and no-one is above the public's right to question decisions made in this place, in courts or anywhere else. If the honourable member for Blair is suggesting that the Australian people should be ignored in terms of their responses to some of the decisions in the AAT, then he should be more express about it, because dancing around these issues is not going to—I don't think—satisfy the queries that are rightly put by Australians when they ask questions of some of these decisions. I think that is a fundamental point to make.

To answer the member's question specifically, my office has not leaked information. Similarly, in regard to the member's question concerning the website, it is the case that, firstly, it was not something that was organised by my office, and certainly not by me. A mistake was made and it is being looked at by the secretary of the department, as he answered in estimates. As you would expect, it is not of the nature described by the member for Blair. That is the reality.

I will make this final point: don't look at what Labor says; look at what they do. That was their track record in government and frankly it has been their track record again here today. This is the 36th question that the member for Blair has asked in the Federation Chamber—not one question in question time.

Mr Neumann interjecting—

If you have something to put, or an allegation to make or a question to ask, go down to the A-league. Don't come up here into the Federation Chamber and pretend to beat your chest. Stand up to your tactics committee and ask the question in question time—has not had the guts to ask one question in question time in over 300 days. He puts out these benign press releases, which are bordering on embarrassing, and yet he does not ask one question ever—not one question ever!—in question time. The member for Blair, I think, demonstrates to his colleagues here, and certainly to his colleagues in the other place, on a daily basis why he is not up to this job. He has demonstrated it again today.

I go now to the excellent member for Fisher. I want to thank him for his question and I want to thank him for the work that he does on the Sunshine Coast. I want to say thank you for the way in which he engages in the important areas of industrial relations and workplace practices. He is an expert who has brought skills to this place. I commend him for the contribution he has made to this place already. He asked some very important questions in relation to the 457 program. I provided some of that detail earlier in my contribution, but I will repeat this point: we cleaned up another Labor mess, which was the rorts and rackets conducted in the 457 program. We found that mess and we cleaned it up. We cleaned it up because I want to see, like all Australians want to see, young Australians working in McDonald's, KFC or Hungry Jacks. I did not want to see Labor's imports working in those jobs instead of Australian workers, so we cleaned up those rorts and rackets, and we cleaned up a mess of Labor's making. We have restored integrity to another visa program.

There are lots of Labor messes that remain. We will continue to clean up all of those messes. It is taking time. It will take money. What I say to the Australian public in the run-up to the next election is that Labor has learnt no lesson from their time in government. They are still fighting and they are still divided. The civil war underway between Bill Shorten and Anthony Albanese is as rife as it has ever been. I think that the Australian public is starting to see through Bill Shorten and the mistakes that Labor continues to make. (Time expired)

Proposed expenditure agreed to.

Health Portfolio

Proposed expenditure, $11,081,570,000

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