Topics: Character test, serious offences, deportation, legislation
PAUL MURRAY: A character test. You would think that it would be part of being allowed to become a citizen of any country. When you're looking at moving or migrating somewhere else. It's something that needs to be strengthened. It's something the federal government is trying to do, but it's been knocked back by the Senate a couple of times. They're trying another time to introduce greater character tests, and Alex Hawke is the Immigration Minister to talk about that very thing. Minister, nice to talk to you. So put simply, what are you trying to do?
MINISTER HAWKE: What we're trying to do is bring in a test, a stronger test that allows us to refuse a visa. If someone's got a serious criminal offence, it's going to be totally non-controversial if they've got a serious offence with a two-year sentence that will allow us if they apply to come to Australia to refuse that visa. If they committed an offence here, we want greater discretion. A violent offence, a sexual offence, a serious offence. We want greater discretion to be able to cancel that visa as well. And what we're finding, as you know, Paul, is under our judicial system, you're seeing more and more violent criminals get sentences under the current twelve-month sentencing test. So, you'll have a criminal who will commit a violent offence, it could be a sexual offence, it could be an offence against children, it could be sexual violence. They'll do a plea deal and they'll get eight months. And we're starting to see courts and judges in Australia take into account that the federal government might deport someone if they give them a twelve-month sentence. So, this is unacceptable to Australians. So, we're asking the Parliament urgently to give us these powers to get these people out of Australia.
PAUL MURRAY: So it's not about the length of time – it's about the things they are convicted for?
MINISTER HAWKE: Absolutely. We're asking under certain violent and serious offences, we will now be able to ensure they fail the character test and we can deport them. And you can see here at the moment, there's a lot of things happening we've got about for the first time in Australian history, people think this might be obvious supporting foreign criminals. Under the coalition government, we're about to hit 10,000 criminal deportations. [Indistinct] We have taken this very seriously and we now know that we've still got a large cohort of people committing some of the most serious crimes that we're unable to deport or refuse their visas. We need these powers well.
PAUL MURRAY: And Labor have made some curious decisions. They've knocked back on things like this. I remember that they tried to knock back mandatory sentencing for illegal gun importation. They want to knock back this as well. What is their position? I mean, I understand why the Greens would want it, but why does Labor say no to something as obvious as this?
MINISTER HAWKE: Well, you're right, Paul. This has been around, this bill that we're trying to trying to get for a number of years now, and Labor started against them, just like, you know, with Anthony Albanese, he said on radio a few years ago. He said that should we be deporting foreign criminals? He said, Well, yes, we should. He went into the House of Representatives and voted against this law to give us more powers to do this. And, of course, he has a bet each way, as you know, all those sorts of things, we're asking Labor to back on this. I mean, why would this be controversial? Some of the biggest issues we've had in recent times have been the protection of women against serious violence, protection of children against family and domestic violence. And I can tell you, Paul, I've been through hundreds and thousands of these cases. They're serious. You go through every matter. There are sick things, we're talking about the most serious levels of offending. And if Australians saw the level of offending – everyone is united about this. We have to cancel these people's visas and get them out of Australia.
PAUL MURRAY: More strength to your arm. Thank you very much, Minister.
MINISTER HAWKE: Thanks, Paul.
[END]
