Subjects: Labor's tax grab on pensioners and retirees; humanitarian assistance to minority groups in South Africa; Mr Roman Quaedvlieg; financial assistance to Australian's facing criminal charges; AAT decisions; Irish criminals.
EO&E...........................................................................................................................................
RAY HADLEY:
Minister good morning.
PETER DUTTON:
Good morning Ray. I want to be the first person to say on air congratulations mate. It's what life's all about and I'm very happy for you, very pleased.
RAY HADLEY:
Thanks mate, I appreciate that. Now I've been speaking…
PETER DUTTON:
…It might be better if you offered to do the night shift when you go up to the hospital as opposed to the afternoon one when your daughter comes back…
RAY HADLEY:
…well I was on my way there yesterday and I got a food order. I had to divert and get a couple of dinners. The food's adequate, but they wanted something else, so I had to go and get that as well, but I was more than delighted to do it. Thank you for your good wishes.
Now I've been speaking in some detail about Bill Shorten's plan to abolish cash rebates for tax credits and shares. Now it's a complicated process. I don't think he's thought this through. He's now saying that the story on the front page of The Australian is not true. He's saying there'll be no offering of pensioners a supplement payment. The Opposition Leader is not planning to make any further announcements about the new tax plan. That's manna from heaven for you and your Party I would think because there's a whole range of people here Peter Dutton, that are going to be impacted on, that he doesn't think about or know about or care about I guess.
PETER DUTTON:
Well Ray I think one of the great maxims in politics is look not at what somebody says, but look at what they do.
Kevin Rudd introduced new taxes and wrecked the budget and the economy when he got into government. At least Bill Shorten's being honest enough to say that he's preparing to do it from opposition and that's the only positive thing you could say about it.
But this has a huge impact; I mean you don't raise $50-odd billion in tax – which is what he's proposing – unless you're impacting on millions of Australians and as it turns out, because they've botched the design of this, it's going to impact particularly on self-funded retirees, low income, fixed income self-funded retirees and pensioners, in particular part pensioners.
It has an impact on millions and he says now – as you say he's changed his position again today – but he says; well, we're just going to provide some of that money back to people to compensate for taking it out of the other pocket. I just don't think people can trust him.
People were joking the other day about Labor reintroducing death duties and, you know, I mean, we've always laughed it off, but this guy is…you know, he's got Chris Bowen at his side who actually believes that he's PJ Keating, dresses the same, stands at the dispatch box the same and you know…
RAY HADLEY:
….he wouldn't walk in his shadow. He wouldn't walk in his shadow.
PETER DUTTON:
Not even close, but I can tell you why; if they've got a plan to tax people – I mean the plan to…not only this plan, but the plan to abolish negative gearing as well – will completely destroy the housing market in some parts of the country and I think when you add all this up, it shows that they don't think it through. All they're after is money because they tax and spend and that's what Labor's done. They wrecked New South Wales doing it, they did the same in Queensland and it seems that they just haven't learned the lessons.
RAY HADLEY:
There's a very small mention in the newspaper today that you're investigating what can be offered to white South African farmers who are facing violence and land seizures at home after decisions were taken by the new South African President. There are reports that one white farmer is murdered every week. Now there seems to be a notable silence from usual humanitarian groups over this, but you are not ignoring it. What are you doing?
PETER DUTTON:
I've asked the Department to look at ways in which we can provide some assistance. So we could provide visas for people, potentially in the humanitarian program, because if people are being persecuted – regardless of whether it's because of religion or the colour of their skin or whatever – we need to provide assistance where we can.
We've been generous, we're a generous country in terms of the numbers of people we bring in. People make the point on occasion that we're too generous, but I think in this circumstance we do have to look at the persecution that's taking place.
We have a huge South African expat community within Australia. They work hard, they integrate well into Australian society, they contribute and make us a better country and they're the sorts of migrants that we want to bring into our country.
So we're looking closely at ways in which we can assess some of these individual circumstances. I hope that we can settle some of these people because I think they will work hard, I think they desire to work hard, they want to educate their kids and they want to provide for a safe and certain future and we can provide that in a country like ours.
RAY HADLEY:
Someone you've worked closely with the boss of the Border Force, Roman Quaedvlieg, is under the pump. There are stories today and in fact they're reporting right now on Sky News that he will be sacked today over accusations investigated by the Prime Minister's Office and others that he sent salacious text messages to a young woman that he later formed the relationship with. What role do you play in any of this?
PETER DUTTON:
Ray, it's at a sensitive time, so I just don't have any public comment to make.
Obviously there's been an investigation that's taken place. The Attorney-General has been involved in the process and looked independently at all of the information available and there's a conversation obviously that's underway with Roman at the moment. So it's not an easy situation.
I feel for he and for his girlfriend, for his ex-wife and children and whatnot. It's not an easy situation and it's not something that deserves to be across the front pages of the paper. So I just don't have any public comment to make in relation to it.
RAY HADLEY:
You raise the spectre of the Attorney-General. Question without notice; I've been jumping up and down about this payment that was decided upon by the predecessor – he's blaming the Department, George Brandis – but there's a paedophile, sorry, alleged paedophile in the Philippines who absconded from Australia when confronting fraud charges and the public purse has tipped in $500,000 to his defence.
Now Christian Porter's all over it like calamine lotion as he should be, but surely there's got to be a change from the Government to this willy-nilly approach to just supplying people – particularly in his case where he absconded while facing fraud charges and then we tip money in to defend the most horrendous charges in relation to the abuse of children in the Philippines.
PETER DUTTON:
Oh Ray, I think you're seeing a fresh approach from Christian Porter. I mean he's not only a smart mind, but he's got a great nose for these sorts of issues. All of us who are spending taxpayer's money need to be mindful of it. It's not our money. We've collected it from people that have worked hard for it, so it needs to be spent responsibly.
We've spoken on many occasions about some of the problems around the AAT and in the judiciary otherwise and I think Christian Porter brings a fresh perspective to that as well, which I really do welcome.
RAY HADLEY:
Yeah, but don't we need to…
PETER DUTTON:
…I work very closely with him and he's a great guy to work with.
RAY HADLEY:
Does he need to rattle up the Department? Because Brandis is…he's thrown him under the bus. He's saying oh it's not me, I'm off to London, the Department made the decision unilaterally without me having input. So all of a sudden he's not to blame. But if we have people in the Department – the AG Department – who think it's a fair go to give some bloke in the Philippines, accused of the most horrendous child sexual abuse claims, who's also absconded from the country on fraud charges $500,000 worth of money, don't we need to actually give them a little tickle up, those in the Department, if in fact they made the decision?
PETER DUTTON:
Well there's already been a big shake up Ray with the Home Affairs Department and this is obviously part of some of the tension previously. With the Home Affairs Department there have been a number of people from the Attorney-General's Department that have come across to the Home Affairs portfolio. So there's already been a fair shake up and I think Christian Porter, as I say, will have a very different perspective on some of these matters and I think that's a good thing.
RAY HADLEY:
I was writing a column for The Daily Telegraph tomorrow and I said: Peter Dutton must wake up with a cold sweat and a nightmare dreaming of the AAT and what other bizarre decision they can make that impacts on his Department.
The latest one is the most bizarre that we've dealt with. It's a man who came here from Iraq – described as a Muslim Iraqi. He's the father of seven apparently from two wives. He decided that he was a homosexual Christian, so he couldn't go back to Iraq. I think he's been before the courts on 30 separate occasions for some very serious crimes. But one of these dim-witted – and I'll use that word you can't – AAT members – who's a senior council I note – has decided that despite all this being true, he should be allowed to stay here. What madness; what planet are we on?
PETER DUTTON:
Well Ray, you and I have discussed many of these cases before and I've said to you and I'll repeat it again today; that the community expectation is that the taxpayer and our country is not going to be ripped off. We're not going to take fallacious stories. We aren't going to take fabricated stories. We aren't going to take people that don't want to work, that only want to come here for a life of welfare. We are not going to be treated like mugs any longer and the visa cancellations are up significantly, they are going to continue to rise under this Government because we don't want criminals here. I don't want people here who aren't going to contribute to Australian society in a positive way and we shouldn't be embarrassed to say that.
And again, I may be a decision-maker in relation to this particular case, it may well come back to me, but again, we are not going to be conned. We're generous, but we are not going to be taken for idiots and we should be proud of the fact that we can help some people that are in need. They start a new life, they work hard, that's a great thing, but we are not going to be treated like mugs and if some people – they can account for their own judgements and their own decisions – but I think there are a number of cases we've looked at now which says to me very strongly that we do need reform in this area of the law and I'm working on that at the moment.
RAY HADLEY:
Okay, just a very quick one. These Irish tourists who've created havoc across South Eastern Queensland; they've fled the country. Can you give us some sort of guarantee Australian Border Force will make sure they don't come back to these shores ever again?
PETER DUTTON:
Yeah well I've got to say Ray, full marks to Australian Border Force, to the Acting Commissioner Mike Outram at the moment because they've really worked well with the Queensland Police here.
A number of them have already left the country. I'm advised that there are others that have tried to come in, they have been detained as I'm advised and turned around and people now will move onto our alert list so that it will be very hard for them to return.
RAY HADLEY:
Alright. We'll talk next week. Thanks for your time.
PETER DUTTON:
Thanks mate, see you.
[ends]
