April 29, 2024
JAMES PATERSON: Ninette and Phillip Simons are a retired couple living in the Perth suburb of Girrawheen. And two weeks ago, on a Tuesday night at 7:00 pm, they got a knock on the door. What police allege happened next is every Australian's worse nightmare and something that never should have happened. Because three men, allegedly disguised as police officers, forced their way into the property, tied up Philip and then viciously assaulted Ninette before robbing them. Ninette is 73 years old. She's a grandmother. She's a cancer survivor. And what happened to her and her husband, never should have happened. It shouldn't have happened because one of those three alleged assailants was someone who was released by the Albanese Labor government following the NZYQ decision last year and was free in the community, despite the fact that he was in court in February for having repeatedly breached the conditions of his visa. Now the parliament gave the Albanese government all the powers it needed to protect the community from incidents like this.
Before Christmas, we rushed through preventative detention orders so the highest risk offenders among the 153 detainees now released in the community could be locked up, could be taken off the streets so they couldn't pose a threat to people like Ninette and Phillip. But because of the Albanese government's failure to use these powers, on not a single occasion have they sought or received a preventive detention order to take these people off the streets. There are right now, as we know, seven murderers, 37 rapists and 72 other high risk violent offenders in the community, free to commit crimes against the community.
Today, the Minister for Home Affairs, Clare O'Neil, and the Minister for Immigration, Andrew Giles, need to stand up. They need to explain why the so-called protection they put in place for the community has failed people like Ninette and Philip and why it could fail other Australians in the weeks and months to come. And if they can't explain what they're
going to do to make sure this never happens again, then they should both resign. If they don't resign, the Prime Minister should sack them because the Australian people deserve better than that. They deserve better than a weak Labor government that has failed this country on community safety. That has failed us on national security. Because what happened to Phillip, what happened to Ninette should never happen again, should never happen in the first place.
Thank you.
ENDS
