Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The coalition have made it clear that we will be supporting the passage of this Home Affairs Legislation Amendment (2025 Measures No. 1) Bill 2025. We do so because the measures are necessary. What they will do is strengthen Australia's removal framework—

Hon. Senators:

Honourable senators interjecting—

Matt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Cash, can I get you to pause for one moment. Colleagues, we have resumed business and there is an awful amount of chatter. I can't hear Senator Cash with her speech. Please go ahead, Senator Cash.

Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As I've stated, they will strengthen Australia's removal framework and help ensure that dangerous noncitizens, particularly members of the so-called NZYQ cohort, which we know includes rapists, paedophiles, murderers and a contract killer, cannot abuse our courts and our legal system to prolong their stay in our country.

What the bill before us will do is tighten the law so that members of this cohort cannot continue to run endless legal delaying tactics. That is why the opposition is voting in favour of the bill. But I need to be very clear: supporting this bill does not mean that we give Mr Albanese and Mr Tony Burke as the minister a blank cheque. Far from it. Last night, we had a short hearing into this bill and, I have to say, every time I asked a question and got another answer it became even more disturbing in relation to what this bill is not doing. It was made incredibly clear to us, by the officials at the table, that this is a bill that is all about the legal issue of procedural fairness.

I said we support what the bill is doing. However, the coalition has an amendment, because what we want to ensure is community safety. There is no amendment put on the table by the government. The government, in this bill, does not deal with the issue of community safety. What we established last night is that there are still 354 members roaming free in the Australian community who are members of the so-called NZYQ cohort. As I said, let us not forget: that cohort includes rapists, paedophiles, murderers and a contract killer. What came out of that hearing last night is, quite frankly, nothing short of extraordinary. That is what the government said, or what Mr Burke, in his press release, said.

We have now been told and we have worked out next to nothing, other than the announcement of so-called deal with Nauru. There is no detail. That is very clear from the answers I got to the questions I asked last night. There is no transparency—do not worry about that. There is definitely no transparency. But what is worse is that there are just vague assurances, and now we know why.

Last night, I pursued a line of questioning in relation to how much it is costing the Australian taxpayer; Mr Burke has said a particular figure, so let's now work through that figure. The figure that Mr Burke put on the table was that the deal with Nauru, on behalf of the Australian taxpayer, was going to cost them $408 million. What they didn't tell the Australian taxpayer is this: officials last night revealed that this particular deal could cost Australian taxpayers more than $2.5 billion over 30 years. That's right—not $408 million but $2.5 billion.

Quite frankly, that was probably a conservative estimate because, under the agreement, Australia will pay straight up to Nauru $20 million the very first moment a detainee sets foot on the island. On top of that, we will put $388 million into a trust account, with every cent of interest earned on that trust account to flow directly to Nauru. Senator Pocock asked some very good questions last night in relation to what the interest on that money could eventually be worth. It could actually be worth billions of dollars.

But here's the kicker. Despite the big announcement by the government, Nauru gets the final veto. They get to pick and choose who they take. 'There are 354 of them. We don't like 350 of them. They're staying on the street in Australia.' Worse than that, they could actually take zero. There is no obligation to take anyone from the NZYQ cohort at all. There was big fanfare from Mr Burke, but, when you look at the details, Nauru determines who is taken, not the Australian government. Nauru can say no. They could say yes to one, they could say yes to two, or they could get to 10 out of the 354 and say, 'Seriously, we've had enough.'

Officials confirmed that to access the $2.5 billion—get this!—Nauru does have to take a minimum number of individuals. They get $2.5 billion of Australian taxpayers' money—big deal—and 354 is the cohort. When I asked the officials, 'What is the minimum number of the cohort that needs to be taken for Nauru to trigger, effectively, the $70 million a year that is going to be paid to them for the 30 years?' the poor officials said—and this is no reflection on the officials; they merely provide the evidence, and this is a reflection on Mr Burke—that the number has not even been agreed.

This is where we are—a big headline by Labor, a big announcement, which the press loved. Then, when we look into the details of it, we are committing taxpayers to billions of dollars over three decades without a firm guarantee from Nauru as to how many of this cohort they will take. This is, quite frankly, an extraordinary state of affairs, and it raises a very, very simple question: what exactly is the Albanese government doing? Australians deserve to know where their money is being spent. They deserve to know if billions of dollars are being transferred offshore with no certainty that they will actually deliver what the government claims. As Andrew Hastie, the member for Canning and shadow minister for home affairs, said in his speech in the other place, 'This deal looks less like a serious plan for removals and more like a very expensive exercise in political damage control.' If you look at the press release, the media got excited and reported on the deal—$408 million. That was just the tip of the iceberg.

There is no transparency. There is no accountability. There are actually no details at the moment, just vagueness. The reality is that even with this legislation—and the legislation will go through; let me make that very clear: the coalition will support this legislation—even with the Nauru deal, 354 members of the NZYQ cohort remain where they currently are. And let's not forget who these people are. They are murderers, they are rapists and they are paedophiles, and there is a contract killer. I think most Australians would think, after I've said that, that it's pretty obvious where they are: they're behind bars. But no. This is the Albanese government. Good grief! Behind bars is the obvious answer. But think un-obvious. Think, 'Where wouldn't you put these people?' That is what this government has done, compromising community safety. These people are on the streets, mixing in our communities. The bill does nothing to remove one of them—not one. What it does do is make it easier, on paper, to deport them, with no guarantee that they will actually leave.

The government has known since last November that this cohort would be released into the community. Yet, instead of coming forward with a strong, credible plan to keep Australians safe from the mess it created by putting these people into the Australian community, it has literally lurched from one stopgap measure to the next. I think this is the fifth piece of legislation that we are now dealing with and that we are told is urgent so we've got to get it through the Australian Senate, because the government made a mistake first up. At every stage, the coalition has had to drag the government kicking and screaming to act. We forced them to bring forward emergency legislation last year. They weren't going to. We pushed for stronger visa conditions. We demanded tougher monitoring and reporting. And today—and let me clear: as I said, we're supporting this bill—we are calling for more. We want our community to be safe.

That is why we will be moving sensible amendments to this legislation—amendments that even the officials admitted will make a—

Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A point of order regarding personal reflection: Senator Thorpe should withdraw that comment, that interjection she made.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Thorpe, it's not your job to make a comment here. It's your job to listen in respectful silence.

Senator Thorpe, if you can't sit in silence, leave the chamber. It's an interjection. It's disorderly. Please continue, Senator Cash.

Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As I said, that is why the coalition will today be moving sensible amendments to this legislation—amendments that will actually make a difference to the safety of the Australian community. After all, when you have people who are not meant to be here—murderers, rapists, paedophiles and a contract killer—then yes, you should as a government put the Australian people first, not the people who should not be here. So we will be urging the government to adopt provisions for preventive detention to ensure that the worst of this cohort can be taken away from the Australian community and detained if they pose an ongoing risk. We will be urging the government to close loopholes in mandatory detention—loopholes that are being exploited right now, as I give this speech here in the Australian Senate.

The people who are affected ultimately are mum-and-dad Australia, who wake up every morning and just want to go about their business safely. But the government have made it clear that they don't want to hear it. This is the fact, though: unless the government accepts strong measures, many of these individuals will remain in Australia for years and years to come. So we are saying that the coalition supports this bill, because the issue of procedural fairness needs to be dealt with, but that is not enough. So, while we'll not stand in the way of the passage of this bill, we will continue to hold the Albanese government to account. We will continue to demand, as we should on behalf of the Australian taxpayer, transparency. We will continue to demand, on behalf of the Australian taxpayer, in relation to the Nauru deal, that taxpayer dollars are spent wisely.

But, above all, this is our first priority, and it's always been the first priority of a coalition government: national security. The sole responsibility when it comes to the fundamental responsibilities of a Commonwealth government is the security of our great nation and our people. If you cannot guarantee the security of our great nation and our people, then, quite frankly, you don't deserve to be in government.

As I said, when we go to the guillotine at 1 pm—these bills will go to a guillotine—we won't have an opportunity to properly interrogate the amendments, but there will be amendments that are on the table that even the departmental officials last night acknowledged will make a difference to community safety. The government is not proceeding with them in this bill and that is a great shame, but we know why.

The government are not serious about the safety of everyday Australians. They are more interested in protecting the rights of people in the NZYQ cohort, who should not be in this country. As I said, when you look at the 354 people, the cohort does include—it is a fact; I'm not making it up—the rapists, the paedophiles, the murderers and a contract killer. I would've thought, given these people are in the Australian community, the government would be saying to the coalition, 'We'll accept any amendment that you put forward.' In fact, I'm happy if the government make it their own. I'm not here to say the coalition has to have a win here; I want the Australian people to have the win. I want mum-and-dad Australia to know that at least one party of government, the coalition, will always put them first—will always put the safety and security of this great country first. And, as I said, we celebrated Australian National Flag Day yesterday—124 years of flying that fantastic flag.

Australians know, quite frankly, instinctively, what this government seems to have forgotten: they're not negotiable; their safety is not negotiable; community safety is not negotiable. It is, as I said, the first duty of any government. When we were in government, it was always our priority to ensure that Australians, on a daily basis, could get up and know that they had a government that put them first, that believed in national security. As I said—

Honourable senators interjecting—

The opposition's role is to hold the government to account, and I think it is a very sad day. The bill will pass, but it does nothing to improve the safety of Australians.

Malcolm Roberts (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Here's yet another bill to fix yet another Labor-Liberal 'uniparty' immigration failure. Australian lives are endangered as a result. This is one reason, just one of many, why people marched, in their tens of thousands—across Australia, from north to west to south—on Sunday. And then we have the Labor-Greens communist coalition smearing and denigrating everyday Australians for doing so.

The Home Affairs Legislation Amendment (2025 Measures No. 1) Bill 2025 has come about as a result of the poor planning and forethought by the Labor government, and, previously to that, by the coalition when in government, allowing unregulated, unsuitable, dangerous immigrants into Australia without adequate screening as to suitability to enter Australia—murderers, armed robbers, paedophiles and a contract killer.

The current visa process, which has seen mass immigration into Australia of excessive, unsuitable migrants, is a clear policy failure by the Albanese Labor government. People have failed to be accepted as genuine refugees and been denied protection visas after multiple assessments, and the government has found that there are difficulties in deporting those people. We told them that. The coalition told them that. Many of these criminals have re-offended in the community—again, murderers, armed robbers, paedophiles and a contract killer.

Around 280 people—the criminals released as a result of the High Court decision in NZYQ—will be deported under these provisions at a rough cost of $1 million per head. That's how much we're supposed to be paying to Nauru. The Australian government has entered into a 30-year contract with the government of Nauru to accept deportees from Australia who are not allowed to remain in Australia. How about we don't bring in these people in the first place and focus on prevention and protection of our country? It's been speculated that about 1,000 people may be deported to Nauru over 30 years at a cost to Australia in excess of $1 billion. How about we don't let in these people in the first place?

This bill is intended to fix this incredibly expensive mistake by the uni-party, which failed the Australian people by allowing criminals, rapists, murders and paedophiles to enter this country. They failed to properly check the criminal histories and cultural suitability of would-be immigrants to Australia. That's what the people were on the streets about last Sunday, across Australia.

Australians are entitled to be safe from the activities of those who are criminals, the scum of society, who wish to bring their ideas of hate and acceptance of violence into our mostly safe Australian society. The Greens, whose behaviour and beliefs fall well short of acceptable standards, would welcome these poisonous people into our country. Australians want these criminal non-citizens gone. We demand that all immigrants have in-depth checks done as to their history and suitability to enter Australia. The existing processing system has failed us repeatedly. We have not been kept safe. We've been exposed to violent criminals.

What has the Albanese government done to date? It has lied to us about the number of unfiltered migrants entering Australia, with mass immigration continuing to occur. Last year's estimates of net immigration were, in reality, exceeded by around 200,000 people. So the forecasted numbers were not only extraordinarily high; they were exceeded by 200,000. In previous years, the excess was 280,000. We have had more than half a million people coming into this country in net migration in years. What has Mr Albanese done? He promised that the next year they would be cut. They were increased. Then he promised again that they would be cut. They were increased.

The existence of this deportation option now means that, at last, there's a real prospect of the removal from Australia of those released criminals, and it may allow the government to rearrest and detain those people released into the community after the decision in NZYQ. All this hinges on the contract with Nauru and the passing of legislation contained in this bill. It's not enough, but it is welcome. I support this bill, which will go further in protecting innocent Australians from the failed immigration policies of the Albanese government and, historically, the coalition.

I want to go back to the protests to give people a voice in Australia. People are uneasy across Australia with mass immigration—not with migrants, but with mass immigration. The protests are not about religion, skin colour or past nationality. They're about mass immigration. It's about the numbers swamping our country, housing and homelessness. There's record homelessness in my state of Queensland, from Cairns in the north to Coolangatta in the south. In every major provincial city in between there is record homelessness. It's about swamping the infrastructure, traffic and services like education and hospitals. It's also about mass immigration because mass immigration doesn't adequately filter people. So it's about the quality of people.

We want people who contribute to our society and our economy, who are productive from the moment their feet hit the shores of this country, not sending PBS drugs home or signing up for welfare. Most importantly of all, for the spirit of the country, the culture of the country, the cohesion of the country and the unity across the country, we want them to assimilate into Australia, not to change Australia but to be changed by Australia. We want people to fit into the country. That's why we've got to stop this multicultural rubbish. Multiculturalism prevents assimilation. It ensures the past culture they've come from continues, and then we have a fractured country. I talked yesterday about this.

Government has three roles. That's it. They are to protect life, protect property, protect freedom. Stay the hell out of people's lives but give them a secure environment in which to live and a free environment. We need to restore Australia. Last Sunday was the first step in that. To people across the country, thank you so much for standing up. Thank you so much for reclaiming Australia. We want more. The Australian people need more.

Debate interrupted.