March 21, 2024
JAMES PATERSON: Good morning. Today, the Minister for Home Affairs, Clare O'Neil, and the Minister for immigration, Andrew Giles, need to front up and explain just how many of the 152 former released detainees are now free in the community without any form of electronic monitoring. We know at least 36 are out in the community. But in a Senate estimates spill over this week, the Australian Federal Police refused to say how much that's increased by. And yesterday in Question Time, the minister representing the Minister for Home Affairs, Murray Watt, also refused to say. We know that among those are at least one convicted rapist, a convicted rapist who's in the community who wouldn't otherwise be here except for the high court's decision. He's now out in the community free of any restrictions at all, not being electronically monitored and posing a risk to the community. This is not an idle or theoretical concern. We know at least 18 former detainees have re-offended out in the community against Australians, and we know at least ten have breached their visa conditions, although none of them can now be charged for those offences because this government completely stuffed up the issuing of their visas.
JOURNALIST: The federal government has, released its migration plan today. It's bringing forward the changes in terms of visa English language standards and a bunch of other measures. What do you make of that decision to bring it forward in the context of the migration numbers? We're expecting to see today?
PATERSON: Well, we know the federal government has lost control of our maritime borders. We've had two boats make it all the way to the Australian mainland and leave without being detected. We know the government has lost control of detainees that are out free in the community offending against Australians. The question that's going to be answered today is just how much have they lost control of our immigration system as well? How close is it going to be to the record numbers we have previously seen on their watch of more than 500,000 people coming to Australia in a single year. For context, the long term historical average is just over 200,000 people. It looks like this government has lost control of our borders when it comes to all aspects, including the immigration numbers, and they are desperately trying to get out there today to manage expectations and spin that they're doing something about it, even though they've had two years in office and the numbers are still at records.
JOURNALIST: You said the government's lost control of our maritime borders. We've had two boats arrive. Did any boats arrive in the last term of government?
PATERSON: We've had more than two boats arrive. We've had 12 or 13 boats arrive. The unusual thing is that two of them have come all the way to the Australian mainland, dropped off passengers and left without being detected. That is extraordinarily unusual, in the last 20 years of Australian migration history you do not normally have boats making all the way to the Australian mainland and leaving without being detected, and that's because this government has failed to deliver the maritime surveillance days that they should and the aerial surveillance hours that they should.
JOURNALIST: Are you pleased to have our UK counterparts here today, and what do you hope to come out of our discussions?
PATERSON: It's very welcome to have our UK partners and friends here in Australia, particularly the Foreign Secretary, David Cameron and the Defence Secretary, Grant Shapps. They are great friends of Australia and they are always welcome here and we need to work more closely with the United Kingdom than ever before in our history. AUKUS is an enormously ambitious project for our three countries, including with the United States, and we need to have seamless integration of our defence industry and our defence forces to make sure that our shared interest, our shared values and our shared history can be upheld all around the world, whether it's in Ukraine or here in the Indo-Pacific.
JOURNALIST: Will you back Labor's draft laws on vaping?
PATERSON: That's a good question, not my portfolio area. All I can observe is that on this government's watch, youth vaping is out of control. Young kids are vaping at record numbers and record rates. And that reflects on this government and its policies.
JOURNALIST: The U.S. Justice Department is weighing to whether allow Julian Assange to plead guilty under a plea deal, what are your thoughts on this and how could this be managed diplomatically from Australia's perspective?
PATERSON: Well, under the previous government, Julian Assange was offered consular support consistently, and it's my understanding that he declined the consular support that was offered him. The United Kingdom and the United States are rule of law countries. And it is very difficult to have a political intervention in a rule of law country. There are opportunities to have negotiations about, someone serving their sentence after they've been sentenced here. And I think that's the appropriate point for that conversation to have.
JOURNALIST: Earlier, Barnaby Joyce said Rudd's cooked if Trump is elected as president. Your thoughts on this? Should there be kind of a backing of our ambassador?
JOURNALIST: Is he cooked?
PATERSON: That's a very pithy observation by my Nationals colleague, as usual. I mean, I've visited Kevin Rudd in Washington, DC. I want him to succeed as our ambassador to the United States. There's no question he's diligently applying himself to that task, that he's a very capable person. But he was also a political commentator in the United States before he took that position. And he made undiplomatic comments about former President Trump. And that will make it harder for him to have access to that administration should President Trump be elected in November and so it really will reflect on the prime minister, who made a captain's call to put Kevin Rudd in as ambassador over the objections of some of his other ministers, reportedly including his own foreign minister.
Thanks, everyone.
ENDS
