May 30, 2024
JAMES PATERSON: Good morning. The Prime Minister and the Immigration Minister have made a shocking and serious admission of guilt today. They've admitted that their direction 99, which never needed to be issued, which never needed to replace the one put in place by the previous government, was the problem all along. First they tried to blame the AAT, then they tried to blame the Department of Home Affairs. But all along they said there was nothing wrong at all with direction 99. But now they have admitted, in fact, the core of the problem was direction 99. Because otherwise why would they need to revise it? The truth is we have seen some of the most horrific, violent and sexual offenders released into our community, allowed to stay despite being non-citizens, because the AAT has cited direction 99, time and time again, as the reason. That's the direction that Andrew Giles signed at the Prime Minister's direction. And the only thing that still needs to happen is for someone to pay a price, for someone to bear the cost, for someone to resign or be sacked, that should be Andrew Giles, and it should be today.
JOURNALIST: Minister Giles has bowed to pressure and he's changing the direction. Isn't that enough? And what changes do you think will be sufficient in terms of the direction?
PATERSON: He's finally bowed to pressure after days of saying there was nothing wrong with this direction which he himself issued, which there was no need to issue. And he's got to bear responsibility for that. There has to be a price to pay up. He should resign and the Prime Minister should sack him if he doesn't resign. And we'll wait and see what the new direction says. But frankly, I have zero confidence that this government will get it right given how badly they stuffed it up the first time.
JOURNALIST: What do you want to see in the new direction?
PATERSON: I want to say community safety put first. That's what should always be at the forefront of the mind of a Minister for Immigration, of a Minister of Home Affairs, of a Prime Minister. But under this government, that's been a secondary consideration. It's been put off for more important priorities for them, like appeasing Jacinda Ardern. They have shown that they are not strong enough to stand up for Australia and our interests. They have shown time and time again that we have a weak Prime Minister and a weak government when it comes to national security and community safety.
JOURNALIST: Murray Watt this morning was pointing to examples of Peter Dutton letting out criminals, while he was the Home Affairs Minister. Do you think that he should front the media today to explain those?
PATERSON: A drowning man does dumb things, and this is a particularly dumb thing that the government has now done. Instead of focusing on this crisis and managing this crisis and protecting the community and stopping people being released into the community, they have involved impartial, independent public servants, in a grubby dirt digging exercise on their predecessors. Instead of getting those officials focusing on fixing their problems, they have asked them to go and look back at their political opponents and the previous government to try and find dirt on them, that is corrupt conduct. That should not have happened, and they should apologise for doing so today. On the substance of it, we still don't know the full details here, but Home Affairs officials admitted in Senate estimates last night that it's likely that many of those people were released from detention so that they could be deported. Petter Dutton's record on community safety and protecting the community could not be stronger. He personally cancelled 6,300 visas of violent criminals. No Immigration or Home Affairs Minister in history has cancelled them more often than him, and we're very happy to compare his record with Labor's any day of the week.
JOURNALIST: The New Zealand government, has released a statement saying it doesn't want to see people with little or no connection deported back there. Aren't you concerns about the diplomatic tensions this could create?
PATERSON: No, I'm not concerned about it. New Zealand are great friends, very important partners. But nothing is more important than protecting the community. And we had that robust and close and cooperative relationship with the government of New Zealand prior to this parliament, under the previous government, even though this was an issue which they raised with us. The truth is, Anthony Albanese has put the bilateral relationship with New Zealand ahead of protection of the Australian community, and he should stand condemned of that.
JOURNALIST: If these people don't see New Zealand as a home though, why should they be deported back there if Australia is their home?
PATERSON: Because they're citizens of New Zealand and citizenship means something. If you're a citizen of a foreign country and you commit a crime here while you're on a visa, your visa should be cancelled, and you should be sent home. No ifs, no buts.
JOURNALIST: What do you make of Minister Giles, blaming the opposition for leaving a migration system in tatters, and saying this morning that he's cleaning up the mess?
PATERSON: He's cleaning up his own mess. That's one of the most shameless political claims I have ever seen in this place. They have had two years, and they have only made matters worse. They have lost control of our borders. We've had at least 13 boats since the election. They lost control of detainees. We've had 153 violent criminals released into community, reoffending against the Australian community. They've lost control of our deportation system, through this direction 99. No Australian can have confidence of this government and its management of the immigration system. And they're not even halfway through cleaning up their own mess they have created in the last two years.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy recently and, it seems that Ukraine is pushing for Australia to attend the peace talks, should they?
PATERSON: Yes, Australia should be represented at the peace talks at a senior ministerial level, and we should come through and respond to Ukraine's multiple requests for coal shipments before the upcoming winter, through which they have a desperate need for energy and electricity, and Australia is in a very good position to provide it. I do not understand why it's taken so long for us to respond to these requests, and why we haven't responded positively yet.
Thanks everyone.
ENDS
