Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Migration Amendment (Bridging Visa Conditions and Other Measures) Bill 2023, which, I note, has been brought on after the agreement to a motion moved by the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, Senator Birmingham, and I congratulate Senator Birmingham for doing that. Here we are, just after question time on a Tuesday but almost one month after the High Court handed down its ruling in the NZYQ case. The government, at the behest of the opposition, ironically, is finally doing what the Leader of the Opposition and Senator Paterson and the coalition have been asking them to do—in fact, saying to them, pleading with them: 'You need to introduce a protective detention regime. You need to.' We have been asking them to introduce legislation allowing law enforcement agencies to lock up high-risk individuals who have now been roaming free in communities in Australia. Tragically, as we now know, two of them have been charged with allegedly committing offences of sexual assault, and, what is worse, one of the offences was against a minor.

For the record, though, let me remind you of how we got here today. The High Court of Australia handed down its decision on 8 November. That is almost four weeks ago today. The next day, the government told us the individual in the High Court decision had been released, but, when asked about the potential release of other individuals in the cohort, Senator Watt actually said, 'We're not a government that acts on decisions that haven't had reasons released.' Guess what? On the Friday of that week we found out that, contrary to Senator Watt's evidence, the Albanese government was immediately releasing a large number of high-risk individuals. As we know, that cohort included rapists, murderers, paedophiles and even a contract killer. They were releasing them from immigration detention, following the High Court decision.

The following Monday the Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs, Andrew Giles, told us that 80 individuals had been released 'subject to a range of strict, mandatory visa conditions'. Two days later, what did we have? Senator Wong admitted that the consequences of breaching these visa conditions were ultimately unenforceable—you've got to be kidding me—because breaching a visa requires that an individual be detained pending deportation, which the High Court had ruled was not applicable to this cohort.

After continued calls from the coalition to take action to keep Australians safe—because, I can tell you, Peter Dutton, the Leader of the Opposition, and the coalition understand that the fundamental responsibility of the Commonwealth government is the security and safety of all Australians—the government finally introduced a bill at the end of the last sitting period, on 16 November. The government gave us less than two hours notice before the bill was introduced. But, even in that ridiculous time frame, let me tell you one thing—I was at the briefing with the Leader of the Opposition, Minister Tehan and Senator Paterson. We were given the legislation and we were told by Minister O'Neil, 'This is as tough as it gets. We are pushing the boundaries of what the law will entitle us to do. We can't make it any stronger.'

Guess what? We identified weaknesses in Labor's legislation, and let me tell you what they were. Labor's legislation did not stop paedophiles going near schools. What an omission. It didn't stop violent criminals from contacting their victims. You've got to be kidding me. It didn't allow the most basic protective measures like electronic monitoring and curfews. This is the legislation about which, at the briefing, Minister O'Neil had kept on saying, 'It is as tough as it can be. The government has gone as far as it can.' The coalition stepped in and presented six amendments to the government, and, despite the government telling us how tough this legislation was and that they were pushing the limits of the law, they had to roll over and accept all six amendments. Thank goodness the coalition was able to step in and clean up Labor's mess.

Since then, what have we learnt? The Albanese Labor government has now released at least 147 high-risk individuals into the community, and each day we wake up and find out that another high-risk individual—remembering this cohort includes rapists, murderers, a contract killer and a paedophile—has been happily released by this government into the community.

To say that Labor's handling of this issue has been an absolute debacle from the start is, quite frankly, an understatement. Last week we heard reports that one of the detainees—who refused to wear an electronic ankle bracelet and who is, by definition, a risk to the Australian community—had absconded. In other words, the Albanese government lost one. You've got to be kidding me. They let them out and then they lost somebody who is a high risk to the Australian community. He absconded and he was unreachable by our law enforcement agencies for days before he was finally located. And guess what? When asked about the matter, Minister O'Neil, far from taking responsibility, washed her hands and said: 'Oh. Well, that's a police matter now.'

And now for this week: and I have to say, this week the greatest fears of the coalition were realised. Yesterday, Monday, we heard reports that a convicted sexual predator, released by the Albanese Labor government, had been arrested and charged with indecently assaulting a woman in South Australia. This is a man who was once labelled by a judge, in sentencing this man, 'a danger to the Australian community' and 'an ongoing risk to women'. Hands up from the Labor government, though. They were prepared to compromise the safety and the security of the Australian people. And then today—these are possibly our worst fears—we heard reports that a further detainee, again released by the Albanese Labor government, a former ringleader of a child exploitation gang, had been arrested in Dandenong amid allegations he had breached his reporting obligations and had made contact with minors. This is a man who is reportedly a registered sex offender, previously alleged by police to have headed a prostitution ring which preyed on children in state care. A court was told how he once traded a packet of cigarettes for sex with a 13-year-old girl.

These are the types of people that the Albanese Labor government have let out. Forget the safety and security of the Australian people! A man that a judge says was a danger to the Australian community and an ongoing risk to Australian women, and a man whom a court was told once traded a pack of cigarettes for sex with a 13-year-old child—the Albanese government was prepared to let them out.

Now, since day one, we—the Leader of the Opposition; Senator Paterson; I, myself; Mr Tehan; and the coalition—have been calling for a preventive detention regime, and you don't need to be Einstein, quite frankly, to figure out why. It was to prevent the exact two scenarios that have now occurred in the Australian community. But that was all too hard. It was all too hard for the incompetent Minister O'Neil and the hopeless Minister Giles.