January 30, 2025
Thursday 30 January 2025
Geoff Chambers
The Australian
Peter Dutton will move to deport high-risk offenders, return all security agencies and frontline staff to the Department of Home Affairs, restore temporary protection visas and bolster Operation Sovereign Borders’ resources from day one if the Coalition wins this year’s federal election.
In a major national security speech, opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson on Thursday will elevate the restoration of the Department of Home Affairs and border protection measures as a “key plank” of the Coalition’s Getting Australia Back on Track election manifesto.
Amid rising expectations in senior public service ranks that Labor will dismantle the Home Affairs department and abolish the portfolio following the election, Senator Paterson will confirm in his speech that all national security policy and operational agencies under the Coalition would be “under one roof, reporting to one minister”.
As Anthony Albanese and the Opposition Leader prepare to fight a tight election over the economy and national security, Senator Paterson will attack the government over its response to anti-Semitism, immigration detainee bungles, border security breaches, rising cyber security attacks, delays in listing terror organisations and halting deportations.
Speaking at the Sydney Institute, Senator Paterson will accuse the Prime Minister of putting “base electoral politics” ahead of national security amid Labor fears about losing support in western Sydney seats with high proportions of Muslim voters.
Senator Paterson, who was promoted by Mr Dutton into the Coalition leadership group last week, will officially confirm Home Affairs, Operation Sovereign Borders and cyber security resourcing would be returned to full strength.
Since the 2022 election, Mr Albanese has gutted the Home Affairs department and handed Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus responsibility for ASIO, the Australian Federal Police, AUSTRAC and the Criminal Intelligence Agency. Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke’s portfolio, established as a super department by Malcolm Turnbull in 2017, now overseas immigration and cyber security policy.
Senator Paterson will say the “choice has never been clearer” for voters on which party is stronger on national security.
“Instead of equivocation and weakness, we will bring total moral clarity to the evil of anti-Semitism. Instead of buck-passing and hand-wringing, we will provide much-needed federal leadership to our law enforcement and security agencies,” Senator Paterson will say.
“Instead of allowing high-risk offenders back into the Australian community, we will not hesitate to cancel visas and deport people of poor character.
“Instead of the trademark chaos at the border we have come to expect from Labor, we will restore Operation Sovereign Borders in full to the tried and tested settings established by the Coalition.”
The 37-year-old will commit a Dutton government to reinstating a “Home Affairs portfolio that has all the tools it needs at its disposal” and eradicating “wrong priorities like airbrushing the Australian flag out of departmental headshots”.
“We won’t be wasting time herding cats across multiple portfolios, or with complex inter-departmental committees. I can confirm that under a Dutton Coalition government, our key national security policy and operational agencies will be under one roof, working together seamlessly and reporting to one minister,” he will say.
“ASIO, the Australian Federal Police, the Criminal Intelligence Commission and AUSTRAC will be returned to Home Affairs. So will the key policy experts currently strewn across multiple departments. Home Affairs will again be the pre-eminent domestic national security portfolio.”
On the rising scourge of anti-Semitism, Senator Paterson will accuse the Albanese government of putting “its political interests ahead of the national interest”.
“It is more concerned about votes in our inner-cities and western Sydney than it is about social cohesion. There is no contest for the government’s biggest failure on national security: anti-Semitism. Because it is not just a failure of national security. Or community safety. Or social cohesion. It is a moral failure. Right from the start, the government has failed to recognise the seriousness of what we are confronting, let alone act on it.”
Senator Paterson will say Mr Burke – who replaced Clare O’Neil last year following the immigration detainee bungles – is “frankly Home Affairs Minister in name only” because he has “no operational law enforcement or intelligence agencies in his portfolio”.
“From their very first day in office, Labor set about demolishing the national security architecture that served us well and kept Australians safe. Before the first Albanese ministry was even sworn in, Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus led a smash and grab raid of the Home Affairs portfolio.
“He removed the Australian Federal Police, the financial crimes regulator AUSTRAC and the Criminal Intelligence Commission into the Attorney-General’s portfolio.”
After last year’s reshuffle that shifted Ms O’Neil and Andrew Giles out of immigration, Senator Paterson said “Dreyfus struck again”.
“This time ASIO – our domestic security intelligence agency – was also ripped from the Home Affairs portfolio and sent to Attorney-General.
“This Prime Minister’s weakness and bad judgment has undermined our counter-terrorism architecture. The Prime Minister even kicked out key national security agencies including ASIO and ASIS off the National Security Committee of cabinet. And replaced them with the Minister for Climate Change, Chris Bowen.
“I don’t know about you, but somehow I doubt Chris Bowen has better insights into our national security challenges than the heads of our intelligence agencies.”
