Subjects: Visa Revalidation Bill; regional processing; US resettlement of refugees from Nauru and PNG; Bill Shorten's lack of leadership.
E&EO…………………………………………………………………………………………..
DAVID LIPSON:
Peter Dutton thanks for your time.
PETER DUTTON:
Thanks David.
DAVID LIPSON:
If you could start by taking us through these changes to the Migration Act?
PETER DUTTON:
Well we have for a long time tried to get more tourist numbers into Australia as you would expect. We're competing with markets like the US and the UK where they've extended the visa period to 10 years and multiple entries are allowed into those markets. Now, we've decided on a trial basis that we will try and compete against those people with a 10 year visa in China and at the moment if somebody is granted a visa we can make the checks and conduct the security and intelligence checks etc, if that is applicable to a particular visa category and people can be issued the visa, they can travel here.
Now, it is normally for a very limited period of time. By extending it to 10 years we have somebody who can during the course of, you know, anytime during that 10 years travel here and a lot can change in that person's life over those 10 years. So once they've got possession of that lawful visa, over the 10 year period we want to give ourselves the ability for details to be updated if people pose a threat or there are character issues for example, we want to be able to stop that person from coming into our country.
DAVID LIPSON:
But isn't it the case that you'll be able to target not just individuals, as you seem to be talking about now, but entire groups of people based on where they were born, their passports, where they've travelled?
PETER DUTTON:
No, no again David, let's call this for what it is. This is a red herring, a political red herring from the Labor Party. In fact they dropped their attack, they didn't ask a question in Question Time for this to be such a significant issue. They put out a press release this afternoon….
DAVID LIPSON:
…leaving Labor aside, we can come back to them, but you know is that the case that you will, as the Minister, be given broader powers to actually classify entire groups of people that can get different treatment to other visa holders?
PETER DUTTON:
The proposal here is in relation to Chinese tourists coming into our country on a 10 year visa. This is the change in the Act which applies only to them.
Now, your point is could you prescribe another group for example a 10 year visitor visa to India? Yes and that is disallowable by the Parliament. So if the Parliament decides that we don't want to grant that visa to India, well they can have the ability through the Senate or through the House to disallow that.
Now, there is nothing extraordinary in that and again it is complete red herring and distraction from Bill Shorten's hiding in the Parliament yesterday and I think really this is an issue of national security in terms of stopping people that might come to our country who potentially could be a threat.
The vast majority are good people, law abiding, come here as tourists, they spend money, they create jobs, that's great. But where people pose a threat we should have the ability under a 10 year visa to cancel it and we would do that under what we are proposing in this law…
DAVID LIPSON:
…but you already have the power – sorry to interrupt – you already do have the power to cancel individual visas though on character or emergency security grounds. Why is that not enough?
PETER DUTTON:
And this power reflects that in relation to this particular visa category. So for somebody who has been granted a visa, it is easy enough to deny somebody a visa if there are pings that come back in the database checks on their criminal history or you know running drugs or whatever their activity might be that we would deny a visa. But once someone has possession of a valid visa, it is difficult in that circumstance, particularly if people have it for a 10 year period and the beauty now is that we can anchor people's identity through biometrics and it allows us the ability to have a longer run visa, but if during the period of say that 10 year period people pop up on movement alert lists or they pop up with character issues etc, we have the ability under this Bill to deal effectively with that. And as I say it is disallowable by the Parliament in relation to the prescribing of that particular visa category and I think that's as it should be.
DAVID LIPSON:
An asylum seeker on Manus Island was forcibly removed overnight and sent home as I understand it. Why was that?
PETER DUTTON:
Well that's an issue for PNG. Under the arrangement that Kevin Rudd arrived at with Prime Minister O'Neill at the time, people would be processed in PNG, if they were found to be refugees then they could settle in PNG. That was the arrangement that Labor signed and that we have in operation at the moment. And if people are found not be refugees, then the obligation is for them to return back to their country of origin and that's as it should operate, it is as Labor signed up to and we've been very clear that people on Manus and on Nauru won't settle in Australia and we've been very clear about that and it has been part of the success in now over 900 days of not having a successful people smuggling venture.
DAVID LIPSON:
So there's no Australian oversight of that processing decision?
PETER DUTTON:
Under the Labor agreement with Prime Minister O'Neill the arrangement was very clear and that is that PNG as a signatory to the convention and to the protocols would have a look at each individual case and if people were determined, as some have, to be refugees they can settle in PNG. If they've been found not to be a refugee then they need to return back to their country or origin. That would be I presume on the media reports the activity that has been undertaken in PNG.
DAVID LIPSON:
What is the latest update on the agreement with the United States to resettle up to 1200 or so refugees in that country?
PETER DUTTON:
Well there is no update other than the fact that the US is working through the cases that have been put to them now.
Again Labor, through their policy failing put people on to Nauru and Manus, our job is to get them off and to do it in a way that doesn't restart boats. We've been successful in doing that so far, but the intelligence is very clear, the people smugglers are trying to put people onto boats now. We are disrupting ventures in home ports and we have an increased presence both at sea and in the air with our Navel and Border Force assets.
So there is a lot of work that is going on behind the scenes to continue the success and I hope that we can get people to the US sooner than later because like everybody I want people off Nauru and Manus, but I don't want new boat arrivals filling the vacancies that are created.
DAVID LIPSON:
You've always been confident that this deal with hold despite the public pronouncements on Twitter and the like from Donald Trump. He seems to have moderated his tweets since those earlier ones and the leaks of that conversation with the Prime Minister. Does that give you any more confidence or were you always confident that this….
PETER DUTTON:
…well David I was confident that the US would honour the deal, they've done that. We're appreciative to both President Obama and now to President Trump. It is obviously a very broad deep relationship that we have with the United States. It has been long and enduring and long may that be the case. So we will continue to work with the US and as I say, at an officials level, they're working through the detail now and I'm going to allow them to do that without running some ongoing public commentary on the arrangement.
DAVID LIPSON:
Just on the goings on in Parliament over the past 24 hours, we saw Malcolm Turnbull in full flight against the Opposition Leader, a very personal attack. Is that the sort of thing that you want to see the Prime Minister doing more of?
PETER DUTTON:
I think if you're standing to be Prime Minister in this country, you need to accept that people will scrutinise your personality and your background and Mr Shorten has questions to answer.
I think people, as we are seeing in the polls, people have hesitations around Mr Shorten, they have a niggling suspicion that he's not who he says he is. He's been involved in union agreements that have taken rights away from workers, but seen money end up in the union pocket. We've seen situations of his own colleagues being betrayed by him and I think it is perfectly reasonable that the Prime Minister would highlight the duplicitous nature of Mr Shorten because Australians should understand that. If he wants to be Prime Minister of this country then Labor is going to have to accept that there will be greater scrutiny and our intention is to apply greater scrutiny to Bill Shorten because given his union background, given the fact that he's now propped up by the CFMEU, this is a very considerable background that he has and people rightly should ask questions about it.
DAVID LIPSON:
So we can expect that blow torch to be applied a bit more often?
PETER DUTTON:
I hope so because Parliament is a place of scrutiny and people need to answer questions and Mr Shorten has a dark past and we need to learn more about it.
DAVID LIPSON:
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton we'll have to leave it there, thanks for your time.
PETER DUTTON:
Thanks David.
[ends]