Subjects: Illegal Maritime Arrivals; 501 visa cancellations.
E&EO…………………………………………………………………………………………..
ALAN JONES:
Peter good morning.
PETER DUTTON:
Good morning Alan.
ALAN JONES:
House, feed and pay them a salary. What salary are we paying them?
PETER DUTTON:
Well there's a welfare benefit that people receive – and a little bit of background as you say – these people have come from Manus or Nauru. These are the people that have paid money to people smugglers. They're part of the 50,000 people who came on the 800 boats under Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard. They've required medical assistance or they've been supporting someone who requires medical assistance. The medical assistance has been provided and there is no need for them to remain in Australia and yet through these legal moves, they've found themselves a way…
ALAN JONES:
….but what legal moves? If you and I sought a legal move it would cost us money. I don't understand how they get these legal moves. How do they get access to lawyers?
PETER DUTTON:
Well it goes back to your earlier remarks Alan about all the political correctness out there and the feel good events that are taking place around statues and all this nonsense. It extends into some of our major law firms where part of their social justice agenda is for pro bono work to be provided. So there are lawyers across the country who are providing pro bono support to people in this situation and they lodge their papers in the High Court and it costs the taxpayer tens of millions of dollars to defend these actions each year.
ALAN JONES:
Frightening. Can't you sort of pass a law which says we'll give you medical treatment and then we'll repatriate you immediately?
PETER DUTTON:
Well there's constitutional issues involved and as you well know we can't pass legislation to dispense with that difficulty of the constitutional issues. So we defend these matters. We fight them in the courts and it is incredibly frustrating – but one of the most frustrating elements to it is that many of these people are provided with houses …
ALAN JONES:
…that's what I was coming to. Now, rent free – how do they get a house rent free?
PETER DUTTON:
Well this is the arrangement that is provided because it's cheaper ultimately than keeping people in detention.
We've closed 17 detention centres that Labor had opened and got all those children out of detention, but with people living in the community, yes it's cheaper than detention, but it puts them in a better position frankly than many pensioners who have paid taxes all of their life and only receive a part supplement for their rent. I think Australians just don't accept this as being for real, so I've sought to bring it to an end.
I see Bill Shorten's out there saying it's outrageous, that they should remain in this taxpayer funded housing. Frankly it just shows you Alan, as we've said all along, that if Mr Shorten was elected prime minister people would come here from Manus and Nauru. The people smugglers would be rubbing their hands together and the boats would restart. That's the reality.
ALAN JONES:
I mean a five bedroom home, I read today, that some of these people are in a five bedroom home at Castle Hill with a large garden valued at $1.5 million. Another at Parramatta has three bedrooms, two lock-up garages, a garden and comes complete with glossy wooden floors. The average pensioner is just in a state of disbelief about this. How many people are involved in all this?
PETER DUTTON:
Well there are several hundred that are involved, but we've given notice to almost 60 of them to say that the game is up and we aren't going to provide you with the housing, the welfare will stop. You came here requiring medical attention – that was the advice of the doctors that you needed to come here – and you've arrived, the medical attention has been provided, there is no reason for you to stay – in fact you said when you came here for the medical attention that you'd return when that medical attention had been provided…
ALAN JONES:
Have you got a list of those people who've come though and do you know where they are? For example they're entitled to come here from Manus Island and Nauru because they've got some sort of medical problem or their family's got a medical problem. Do you have, as a Government or as a Minister, as a Department, a list of those people and do you know where they're getting medical attention and where they go after the attention?
PETER DUTTON:
Yes. So there's a lot [inaudible] Alan, a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes with officers from my Department engaged in trying to encourage people to return, working with people to make sure that…
ALAN JONES:
…so okay; Alan Jones comes from Manus Island because he's sick and the Australian Government says yes you can come here and get treated and so you know where I'm being treated. Then they say right he's fixed and he's okay. How come he gets to the next step with some sort of tricky legal manoeuvre or some pro bono lawyer? How does he get into the act when in fact someone should say right you'll check out of the hospital here now, like we all check out and from here on in back you go. How does it fail in the middle there?
PETER DUTTON:
Because there's obviously a lot of information that is provided through social media, through advocates, where people know that some of these people are coming to Australia, the lawyers take out injunctions…
ALAN JONES:
…but this is un-Australian behaviour by lawyers, isn't it?
PETER DUTTON:
Well of course it is and it's gone on for too long. I think people believe in a fair go, but this is ripping the system off. I've said, as we have with visa cancellations and stopping boats otherwise, we aren't going to tolerate it.
So these people need to return either back to their country of origin or back to Nauru or Manus whence they came and that's the arrangement. So we've been very clear about it. But you're right; these lawyers have been playing the game with these people who are willing participants. We're a generous nation, but we are not going to be taken for a ride. The Prime Minister has been very clear about it, I've been very clear about it and we're taking action in that regard.
ALAN JONES:
There's a Herald Sun story today which will sort of cause people to drop their coffee cups where you have conducted what's described as an unprecedented blitz on foreign born criminals and the figures indicate that 2,847 killers, crooks and creeps have been ordered out of Australia since December 2014: 1,115 thugs convicted of assaults and grievous bodily harm and other crimes of violence; 455 drug traffickers and dealers; 223 sex creeps convicted of paedophile offences and possession of child pornography; 114 perverts convicted of rape and other sex offences against adults; 54 murderers and 21 people convicted of manslaughter; 24 people whose visas were cancelled on national security or organised crime grounds; 841 offenders charged with white collar and other crimes. All up 2,847. It's unbelievable.
PETER DUTTON:
Well it has to happen Alan. I mean people who come to our country as visitors, as non-citizens, need to abide by the law. That's the condition of their visa and I was startled when I went back and had a look at some of the people and their criminal backgrounds, particularly during the Rudd-Gillard years, where these people went on ultimately to become Australian citizens – and we wonder why we've got problems with people committing offences or terrorist offences and all sorts of crimes – these people were becoming Australian citizens.
I've said very clearly that 99 per cent of people come here, do the right thing, abide by the law as a tourist, as a worker and then they leave our shores. The reality is for those people that don't – that is those people who are committing crimes against Australians – I've ramped up the number of visa cancellations by about 1,200 per cent and as you say, it includes all of those people – about 150 outlaw motorcycle gang leaders, people who were involved in the distribution of ice to kids and destroying families and lives – and we're making our country a safer place by doing all of this.
So we're going to continue to ramp those up to numbers as high as we possibly can because we do keep people safe and frankly I think we're saving future victims, future kids who may fall prey to these paedophiles and others and I think it's work that must be done and work that we're actually really committed to.
ALAN JONES:
I mean you're just a right wing reactionary, that's all you are. I mean it's astonishing. We need 30 Peter Dutton's – 30 of them. They're all nodding their heads around here. The young ones are nodding their heads. We need 30 Peter Dutton's who gets into the ring and deals with these people. We are in your debt and thank you for talking to us.
PETER DUTTON:
Pleasure Alan, take care.
[ends]
