Subjects: Phelps Bill; Department of Home Affairs advice; foreign political donations.
EO&E...........................................................................................................................................
RAY HADLEY:
Every Thursday we try to catch up with the Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, he's on the line. Minister, good morning.
PETER DUTTON:
Good morning, Ray.
Kerryn Phelps, she's been slammed now by security agencies for her proposal to speed up medical transfers from offshore detention centres. It's a three pillar approach, this is one of the pillars collapsing, therefore, the word goes to the Indonesian boat smugglers we're open for business.
PETER DUTTON:
It's one of the central pillars and it's been one of the reasons we've been able to get all the kids out of detention. Labor had 8,000 children going through detention, 1,200 people drowned at sea as we know, so this is a Phelps Bill that goes nowhere without Labor support. Bill Shorten now has advice, he's had briefings.
The agencies have told him that this bill would be a disaster and it would restart the boats. We need to hear from Mr Shorten now why he's supporting the bill. If three Independents or four Independents are sitting there supporting the bill, it doesn't go anywhere. It can only be successful in either the Senate or the Lower House if Bill Shorten supports it. At the moment he says he does. I hope he capitulates and votes with the Government because we've taken a lot of hard decisions and we've secured our borders; we've stopped people drowning at sea; we've secured our sovereign right to decide who comes to our country and Mr Shorten in Opposition, let alone by the time he gets into government, he's already declaring that they would unwind Operation Sovereign Borders and that they'd be happy for the boats to restart. I don't believe Australians support that position.
RAY HADLEY:
Now the so-called independent lawyer, the barrister from Melbourne who's offered advice to the Labor Party says: 'look, even if Kerry Phelps' law is passed, the Minister can still intervene if he thinks a terrorist is coming here'. It came from Matthew Albert; I've got a list in front of me of the ALP conference in 2016 where the same Matthew Albert was a member of the associate policy committee for the ALP, hardly independent I would have thought.
PETER DUTTON:
I would have thought Mr Shorten would be best advised to take the advice from the Director-General of ASIO, from the Chief of the Defence Force, from the head of Operation Sovereign Borders, from the Australian Government Solicitor in relation to this bill and the advice to me and to Mr Shorten, certainly to the Prime Minister as well, has been consistent; that is, our people, having looked at the bill, believe that in a matter of weeks, everybody off Nauru and Manus – essentially regardless of their medical condition – would be in Australia. If you do that, the boats restart because we've said religiously for a long period of time that if you seek to come by boat you won't be settling in Australia.
So at the moment, people won't pay money because they don't believe that they're successfully going to get it into Australia. If they come here overnight from Manus and Nauru, if the Labor government is elected or this Phelps' bill passes, then you will see people paying money, hopping on boats and we already know that the people smugglers believe that with a change of government, they're back in business and it's a disaster, a human disaster, but also a financial disaster.
I mean people work hard for their money, pay their taxes and Labor wasted you know, well over $10 billion on this policy, money that could be spent on upgrading roads or schools, or additional police, or hospital beds and if Labor do it all over again – at a time when the Government doesn't have any money, we're borrowing to pay for these sorts of services because of the debt Labor ran up last time – if you put that on top of all the taxes they're putting on people, it would be a disaster for our country.
RAY HADLEY:
So it's already fairly generous and The Daily Telegraph and The Courier Mail reported this week that over, or almost 900 people were medically transferred to Australia from Manus and Nauru for treatment for ailments like a boil on the bum or constipation; they were accompanied by family members and none of those almost 900 people have ever returned because the minute they get to Australia, they of course invoke their legal right to legal representation and the courts are clogged.
PETER DUTTON:
Ray, that's the reality of the courts here; you and I have spoken many times about the AAT and some decisions that we just shake our head at. So there is a long legal process that costs us millions of dollars each year to defend matters and you're right, there are some cases before the High Court or the Federal Court at the moment in relation to our desire to send people back to their country of origin, or back to Nauru or Manus, but in the end the Government has provided medical support; we've put a significant amount of money into a new medical centre up on Nauru, similar facilities up on Manus Island and there's been a lot of propaganda that's run around here, but the key issue for us now is whether or not Bill Shorten supports a dismantling of Operation Sovereign Borders.
Operation Sovereign Borders has been successful, as you say, because of those three pillars. Bill Shorten's version of Operation Sovereign Borders – 'Open Soft Borders' – is just not going to work. People drown again; kids go back into detention and we waste billions of dollars and why Mr Shorten would consciously make that decision, I don't know. So I think the focus shouldn't be on the Independents frankly, I think the focus should be on Labor and him being required to explain why he's going to allow decisions to be taken for the boats to restart.
RAY HADLEY:
Just on an email I read while you were waiting to come on and one I got yesterday from someone in the bush, I think Cootamundra it was from memory, about the level of medical care they get in regional centres and then the one I got this morning about the level of medical care people get on those two islands. Is it right that it's better than the Australian average in rural areas, the number of doctors per person?
PETER DUTTON:
Well yes it is, and I've made this point before, where I've been to Afghanistan and seen our troops there and looking at the hospital facilities, the medical facilities available to our troops in theatres like Afghanistan. The hospital that I saw, the medical centre up on Nauru, is of a better quality; and as I say, there's been a lot of propaganda put around by advocates, by the Left, as to what we've done. The fact is we have provided medical support and assistance. There are many people up on Nauru with Australian qualifications in all sorts of areas of medical practice that are providing services up there. And Australians, the taxpayers who are paying for it, they've got a right to ask the questions, and for many people in rural areas, they don't have the same level of service and I can understand why they'd be angry at that.
RAY HADLEY:
Just one final thing. Stories abound about the Chinese billionaire Huang Xiangmo. Sam Dastyari, of course, lost his position in Parliament because of his association, but your mob aren't in the clear either. Andrew Robb and others benefited from his rather generous donations to both Liberal and Labor Party politicians. He's suspected of being a Chinese Communist Party agent of influence. His son's still here with an office in North Sydney, but he's in Hong Kong and can't come back. Have you had any involvement with Mr Huang?
PETER DUTTON:
I certainly have taken no donation from him. That's the first point. The second point is that the Government has passed legislation that prevents foreign nationals from providing donations. This is a big issue for GetUp! as well, where they have been taking a lot of money from overseas from all sorts of different people. So, it's important that that not continue. Where you've got an Australian citizen or somebody with permanent residency, even if they're a Chinese-Australian national or from whatever country it might be, there's a murky area there, I suppose.
The main point is that ASIO does make recommendations, does make decisions from time-to-time in relation to individuals without commenting on this case, but if people are involved in activities which are against our national interests, they can expect to have their visas cancelled, to be deported, or be prevented from coming back into Australia, and people should be very mindful of that.
RAY HADLEY:
Just on this, I mean, and I've already declared that both the parties are guilty of being involved with this bloke. But there was one in New South Wales, under the reign of the last Labor government prior to the Conservative government coming to power in 2012, but it's really concerning. We got a Chinese Australian elevated to the Upper House, replacing Eric Roozendaal, who was a senior minister in various governments. He vacates that position to retire and next thing he finds himself in the employ of this bloke.
PETER DUTTON:
Well see, the difference with somebody like Sam Dastyari or potentially other people is whether or not they're doing something for the money, I mean, or whether they're advocating a position that's against party policy in favour of foreign governments…
RAY HADLEY:
….well, that's what cost Sam's his spot in the end? Why…
PETER DUTTON:
….well, this was the difficulty for Sam Dastyari in terms of what he had said. He'd got up with the Australian flag in the background and was essentially telling one thing to the cameras, and giving a nod and a wink otherwise. So, I mean, that is to an extreme. And the New South Wales Labor Party doesn't have a clean track record by any stretch of the imagination. I think, rightly, people have asked questions, but the Government has moved very quickly to stop those foreign donations and I think that's a step in the right direction.
RAY HADLEY:
Okay. We'll talk next week. Thanks for your time.
PETER DUTTON:
Thanks Ray. See you mate.
[ends]
