Matt Williams (Hindmarsh, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection. What security and screening measures is the government taking to ensure that the 12,000 refugees from Syria coming to Australia are legitimate refugees?

Mr Mitchell interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Just before I call the minister, the member for McEwen has been warned. He will not interject again and remain in the chamber.

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

I want to say thank you very much to the member for Hindmarsh for the question and also for the work that he does on the backbench immigration committee. He has a great interest in making sure that we can continue to grow our nation. Of course, since the Second World War, we have welcomed to our country some 825,000 refugees—people from the four corners of the earth and people who have been able to take that opportunity presented to them and to their families and contribute to our country in a phenomenal way.

It has been the business of this government to clean up the border protection mess that we were left. We have secured our borders and, as a result of that, we have been very clear about the fact that that enables us to increase the number of people that we will take through the humanitarian and refugee programs. With the devastation in Syria and in Iraq, we have announced that we will take 12,000 people from Syria and Iraq. We have done an incredible amount of work—in particular, with the Syrian leaders in the Christian communities and elsewhere here in our own country—to try to identify, as the government has made clear on a number of occasions, those people that remain our priority: women and children, people who have been persecuted and those who are very unlikely to be able to return to their place of birth or to their place of residence.

The government has, I think, the most rigorous criteria when compared to any other country that has volunteered to take Syrian refugees. We are applying biometric and fingerprint testing. We are working with our Five Eyes partners to access databases and with experts within the department to verify the authenticity of documents that people have so that we can be assured that people who are applying under that program are, indeed, those who are most in need. That is important for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the national security of this nation is the absolute priority of this government and under no circumstance will we compromise on the national security of this nation. If we find we have a suspicion about an applicant's motivation, background or affiliations, that person will not proceed into this program. They will not be coming to this country. Secondly, it is very important to get this right because there are many millions of people who are in need, and by taking people in the program that are not worthy we are displacing those people who are most in need.

I thank the member for Hindmarsh and many of those within the coalition—and, indeed, within the parliament—who have a serious interest in making sure that we can get this matter right and that we bring people to this country, particularly those from persecuted minorities, including Christians, who will make this great opportunity that is available to them a great success story for their families for generations to come.