Labor Government

I reject the comments from the member for Hawke and also his imputations about the coalition. I want to look at the sad story of this government’s record when it comes to failing to keep Australians safe and failing dismally to manage the economy, the two things that right now actually matter most to Australians, who are in a cost-of-living crisis and are worried about their personal safety and their family needs. Those opposite should perhaps open their uni textbooks and look up Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. No. 2 is safety. No. 1 is a roof over your head and enough to eat, or enough money to be able to provide those.

The only things that this government is actually strong on are weakness and incompetence when it comes to managing immigration and the economy. We know that the government’s first responsibility to individual Australians, to the general public and to our nation really is to keep citizens safe in our own country—national security. Under the former immigration minister, the Prime Minister’s mate who was unceremoniously booted to a portfolio with less stress following the NZYQ High Court decision, the Albanese government released 178 detainees from detention. In that cohort were seven murderers, 37 sex offenders and 72 violent offenders. The former immigration minister and the former home affairs minister—who was also booted to a less stressful portfolio, one a bit less susceptible to blunders of national security significance—didn’t have a Plan B when that NZYQ decision by the High Court occurred. They weren’t ready to protect Australians from the criminals that they let out.

The ministerial submissions released under the FOI laws and published by the Australian confirm that Labor had released detainees with no visa and therefore no safeguards such as reporting conditions or monitoring devices. That should be frightening. It should be ringing alarm bells for Australians. Former minister Giles then misled the parliament on 15 November, 2023, when he said during question time:

I can confirm that all of those individuals required to be released as a result of the decision of the High Court are on bridging visas with appropriate conditions.

So the Prime Minister proceeded with reshuffling his ministers, and now we have the member for Watson, who has four portfolios, including home affairs and immigration. I’m sure members opposite will have a great time on that particular point that I just made, but think back to the last time the member for Watson was the immigration minister, in 2013, when 83 asylum seeker boats arrived in 80 days. That’s a pretty good strike rate if you’re in sales, but it’s not a very good strike rate if you are in immigration, so let’s see what will happen under his watch.

Government members interjecting—

Mr Hogan: Interjections, Deputy Speaker. Constant interjections, Deputy Speaker.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER (Ms Claydon): Well—

Ms BELL: Now, Australia is a generous nation with a big heart, and we punch above our weight when it comes to supporting refugees. We have a history of supporting refugees from other conflict zones—those 12,000 from Syria, as the Leader of the Opposition pointed out, and those from Afghanistan—but this government has issued almost 3,000 visas to people from the Occupied Palestinian Territories, but we do not know how many people were subject to a clearance from our security agencies. In contrast, the UK granted 168 protection visas, 153 temporary residence visas have been approved by New Zealand, and the US has accepted 17, so these countries have been more cautious as to who they let in and the time that they take to do that. It is not so with this government.

It’s not about racism, as the member for Warringah shamelessly said in this chamber. This is about averting a public safety disaster should the proper processing steps not be followed by this government. Face-to-face interviews by Australian officials in neighbouring countries like Jordan, as we did in the Syrian crisis, would be acceptable.

I haven’t got a lot of time left to talk about the failure of this government on the economy, but Australians know. They are hurting. They can’t pay their bills. I would ask them to look back to before the last election, think about the promises that were made to them that life would be easier and ask themselves the question: is it?