Sally Sitou (Reid, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

At the end of 2014, Binjun Xie entered Australia on a student visa. He was to become known as 'The Hammer' because of his criminal activity. That year saw the transition of the immigration portfolio from the member for Cook to the now Leader of the Opposition. During Binjun Xie's nine years in this country, he established a sprawling underground network for people trafficking and prostitution. Some of those activities happened in Burwood in my electorate of Reid. Binjun Xie got rich by committing the most deplorable acts and exploiting vulnerable women. The extraordinary thing about this individual is that this was not the first time he'd engaged in this sort of criminal activity. Binjun Xie was jailed for five years in the UK for doing the exact same thing there. So let that sink in to the minds of those opposite. He was jailed for five years in the UK, deported back to China and then permitted to enter Australia to commit those crimes. The reality is that Binjun Xietook advantage of an immigration system which those opposite had allowed to wither. However, Binjun Xie's case was not an isolated incident. The reality was: our immigration system was being exploited by criminal gangs and dodgy migration agents.

In light of these revelations, the Minister for Home Affairs, Clare O'Neil, established the Rapid Review into the Exploitation of Australia's Visa System, run by Christine Nixon. The review uncovered details of the gaps and weaknesses in Australia's visa system that the coalition had left for us. It allowed abuses of sexual exploitation, migrant worker exploitation, human trafficking and other organised crimes. The weaknesses and gaps in our migration system were enabling the worst crimes known to humanity to occur in our country—gaps that people like Binjun Xie exploited. The coalition presided over a systemic failure in our immigration compliance system, and the Nixon review revealed that staffing cuts to the home affairs department, started by the former coalition government, undermined effective compliance. The then immigration minister, and now Leader of the Opposition, has been revealed as the great fraud that he is, because we know that, while the Leader of the Opposition talked a big game on immigration, he oversaw the fundamental underresourcing of the entire system. It was under his watch that criminals like Binjun Xie were allowed to bounce between the UK and Australia, committing some of the most vile crimes against vulnerable people in our community.

We are making concerted efforts to clean up the mess from those opposite—firstly, through resourcing. The Department of Home Affairs will receive an additional $50 million to establish a new immigration compliance division. This division will enhance immigration compliance and safeguard the integrity of the visa and migration system. Secondly, we will strengthen regulations around the conduct of migration agents. We will enhance the assessment of registered migration agents to ensure they meet stringent fit-and-proper-person criteria. We are also making it easier to penalise migration agents who are acting unethically, by strengthening the Migration Agents Registration Authority and raising the financial penalties for agents offering illegal assistance.

The immigration system we inherited from the coalition is a mess. It is burdened by complexity. It incentivises temporary visas, making it difficult for anyone wanting to build a life here. Even the most basic function of compliance requires an overhaul. We've started cleaning up the mess left behind by those opposite—including deporting Binjun Xie in October this year, so he can no longer exploit vulnerable women. While I am relieved that he is no longer able to commit his heinous crimes in this country, I am sad and angry that he was allowed into this country in the first place. I'm sorry to all those women who have been hurt by his actions. I'm sorry to the Australian public. They deserve an immigration system that is in our country's national interests.

See this speech in context