Subjects: Bill Shorten's weakening of border protection policy.
EO&E...........................................................................................................................................
RAY HADLEY:
Minister, good morning to you.
PETER DUTTON:
Good morning Ray.
RAY HADLEY:
Right, you've had a week and a half, haven't you?
PETER DUTTON:
Well mate I've been in Parliament now, what, 17, 18 years and I've never seen a week like this. I mean I watched Kevin Rudd destroy himself, I watched Kim Beazley do the same, Julia Gillard and this week from Bill Shorten is something else. I think people are really just shaking their heads.
RAY HADLEY:
And can you see the parallel that I drew yesterday between Beazley, MV Tampa and Howard? That happened in August, the election was in November, so in terms of time frame, very close. All the opinion polls had Kim Beazley across the line. The accidental occurrence I guess, as opposed to a deliberate attempt to sabotage yourself with Kim Beazley – he couldn't rule on the MV Tampa – but it parachuted the Prime Minister John Howard to an election victory.
PETER DUTTON:
Well Ray, it just says to me that the left of the Labor Party has grown in number over many, many years and they won't allow the Labor Party to have a policy that's consistent with the view of the Australian people and the Australian people want us to have strong borders. They want us to protect our borders. They want to make sure that our national security is not compromised and for the Labor Party to be in the Chamber, supported, seconded by the Greens, and to come up with this model which is going to see, I'm sorry to say hundreds of people coming here very quickly, it will be quite confronting, and that's the reality of the Bill that they've passed in the Parliament.
RAY HADLEY:
But in a strange and perverse way the vote of Derryn Hinch yesterday may have well propelled you back into the….your Party that is, back in the electoral race after it appeared you were doomed for failure because if boats do start arriving between now and May, it won't be 53-47, it'll be 50-50 or 51-49 your way. That's the way I read it and would you see it the same way that if boats do arrive that it certainly plays in your hands to be re-elected as a government?
PETER DUTTON:
Ray look, Scott Morrison and I were talking yesterday about our different options, speaking to the Generals and what not at the National Security Committee. You know we've both lived through boats and the aftermath of it and from our perspective the most important thing here is to make sure that we get national security right, that we protect our borders.
We've spoken to the sailors who pulled the kids out of the water, the half eaten torsos, those people, those sailors, members of Border Force, I mean they're people still to this very day with PTSD and they've never recovered and some never will.
The most important thing for us is to make sure that boats don't start, don't get back through. The Labor Party has made it much harder for us to do that now, but we just double down our determination to make sure they don't get through and that's the bigger important issue for both of us and for the Government.
RAY HADLEY:
You see I watched interviews this morning and I made mention of someone I admire greatly Kieran Gilbert, trying to tear the Nationals Leader apart over an assertion that these people keep coming here and he was shouting down the Leader of the Nationals saying no, no, no, you don't understand, it only applies if you read the law, it only applies to people on the island now and with all due respect to Kieran; does anyone really think that if they were to win government on the back of people like Kerryn Phelps and the Greens and the crossbenchers, that they won't just simply apply the same rule to any anyone that does arrive after the May election?
PETER DUTTON:
Of course Ray, I mean it's a joke and do you think the people smugglers when they're conning the money out of people up in Indonesia or Sri Lanka are going to say oh look all these images you've seen of people going from Nauru and Manus to Australia, and that's why you're ready to hop on a boat now, that's not going to apply to you. I don't want to take your money under false pretences. You should read the fine detail in your contract.
I mean these are organised criminals. They don't care whether people drown. They are horrible horrible people and if the Labor Party thinks that that nuance is going to be heard by desperate people paying money to a people smuggler, they're completely deluded at every turn. I mean allowing people to come into our country who have serious allegations of sexual assault or being involved in sexual relationships with young girls – one person that's been accused of murder out of Iran – under the Labor Party Bill or now law, we cannot stop that person from coming in.
I mean if there is a person trying to board a plane in Dubai or Kuala Lumpur or somewhere today and they've got a visa to come to our country, but we know that there's an allegation of rape or child sexual molestation, that person is not getting on that plane. They are not coming to our country. And yet the people on Nauru and Manus with similar allegations under Bill Shorten's Law, have a rite of passage to our country and the doctors will decide that and it's completely unacceptable.
RAY HADLEY:
Have you caught up with a story by Renee Viellaris in The Courier Mail about this Pakistani bloke on Nauru with links to the Taliban who wants to allegedly, and this is from Five Eyes, the intelligence accord between Australia, US, Canada, New Zealand, UK, they've already provided security advice on some of these people including this 29-year-old Pakistani national and he's been flagged for his terrorist ideals and suspicion of wanting to attack us here. I mean if he gets a carbuncle on his bum does he come here?
PETER DUTTON:
Well you don't have to. I mean under Bill Shorten's Law you can Skype; the doctor can Skype from Tasmania or wherever the doctor might be, all they need to say is that the person needs to come here for a consultation. Right. So that's how pathetic…
RAY HADLEY:
…and once they get here, they stay here as is evidenced by under the old system the vast majority of people who came here for medical reasons - valid medical reasons - just simply get here, enlist the pro bono lawyers and stay here.
PETER DUTTON:
Well they injunct straight away so that they can't be returned. So that's the routine and at the moment people won't pay money to get on a boat because they don't believe they can get here, and yet under this they do and I just can't believe that Bill Shorten, having had the briefing from the Director-General of ASIO, the Head of my Department, the Chief of the Defence Force, the Head of the Australian Border Force, all of them provided him advice and yet he acted against and in spite of that advice, supported this Bill and he has weakened our national security as a result of it.
As we've seen just overnight Mark Dreyfus; he needs to understand actually, he's paid by the Australian taxpayer to represent the Australian interests and yet I see today, and I think you've covered it this morning, he has taken a decision that we shouldn't be bringing terrorists back if we're going to offend some other country. We should be acting in our country's best interests.
RAY HADLEY:
Well I was about to get that. I was about to get that. It appeared there were some sort of bipartisan support for what you were trying to do and all of a sudden it appears the Labor Party had bailed on any bipartisan support.
PETER DUTTON:
Well I think they've back flipped the other way now, so I can't understand…
RAY HADLEY:
…what, they've come from…they've come from supporting, to opposing, back to supporting, is that what you're saying?
PETER DUTTON:
That's my understanding I can't understand what's going on in the Labor Party. I mean this is not a hypothetical. I mean I'm facing decisions in relation to people coming back to our country that we know have been associated with ISIL, that we know are a significant threat walking the streets in our country and I want to do everything humanly possible within the law to stop the people from coming back; and yet I've got Mark Dreyfus playing defence lawyer, trying to find technicalities where these people can come back in and they don't want to offend other countries or they're worried about the diplomatic implications of bringing people back into it, you know, or not bringing people back into our country by leaving them somewhere else.
I mean we don't leave people without their citizenship, we don't render them stateless, we abide by international law, but honestly, I mean Mark Dreyfus and Bill Shorten have to act in the best interests of Australians and this week they've demonstrated on borders and in national security that they can't do it.
RAY HADLEY:
How far away are you from all of that coming to pass in relation to those who hold dual passports or dual nationalities? I mean the point made by Dreyfus and others is oh, it will go to the High Court, but if they don't get back here, they can't go to the High Court.
PETER DUTTON:
Well again, I mean we're tightening the law as best we can, but we need the support of the Labor Party because we can't get it through the Senate without them and why they would compromise our national security is something only Bill Shorten could answer.
RAY HADLEY:
Alright. I know you've got a very busy day. I appreciate your time this morning and we'll catch you next Thursday.
PETER DUTTON:
Thanks Ray, take care mate.
[ends]