Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Can the Prime Minister confirm that in the last month it has been revealed that the Minister for Home Affairs intervened in a matter of hours for two au pairs on tourist visas, misled the parliament over whether he knew one of the intended employers of the au pairs, participated in government discussions about child care when he had an interest in childcare centres and has doubts about whether he's even qualified to be a member of parliament and a minister in this government? Why is the Prime Minister continuing to support the Minister for Home Affairs?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm asked why I continue to support the Minister for Home Affairs; that was the question. It's because he's doing a fantastic job. That's why. I'm asked about interventions that have been made by our government and, in particular, the Minister for Home Affairs. It may interest the House to know that, during his time as minister when he had responsibility for these matters, the minister exercised a ministerial intervention power to grant 4,816 visas. Now, in just two financial years between July 2011 and June 2013, the member for McMahon, when he was the minister, and the member for Gorton intervened over 23,000 times. Gee! You would need a pretty thick paper to go through all those 23,000 occasions. There is a number that's bigger than 23,000 that relates to the member for McMahon; that's the 25,000 people who turned up on illegal boats on his watch. That is his form. That is their form.

I will tell you the other reason I support the Minister for Home Affairs. It is because together he and I, in the decisions we made—I as Minister for Immigration and Border Protection and he as Minister for Immigration and Border Protection and Minister for Home Affairs—cancelled 3,763 visas of noncitizens who committed crimes; 694 were convicted for assault, 270 were child sex offenders, 69 were murderers, 193 were violent offenders and 194 were outlaw motorcycle gang members. We cancelled the visas of people like Alex Vella, who was head of the Rebels Motorcycle Gang. When I became the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, the New South Wales Police Force were very quick to tell me that this was a person who should not be in Australia. I was happy to act on that. The Labor Party sat and did nothing. They did nothing as the visa was renewed. They sat on their hands. When it comes to border protection, the Labor Party are more interested in protecting Australia from au pairs than they are from protecting Australians from violent criminals.