Subjects: The Prime Minister’s engagement news; Labor’s immigration detention shambles; Andrew Giles – the hopeless and hapless Immigration Minister; the Prime Minister’s shocking betrayal on the stage three tax cuts; Labor’s cost of living crisis.
E&OE
RAY HADLEY:
Well, just a warning as I go to – as I do every Thursday – the Opposition Leader federally, Peter Dutton, if the bells ring, he’s got to go, there’ll be a division. He’s on the line right now. Peter Dutton, good morning.
PETER DUTTON:
Good morning, Ray.
RAY HADLEY:
Now, we deal with the, I guess, the story that broke this morning: the Prime Minister has announced his engagement. My listeners, like me, can be a little cynical, suggesting that the timing is strange, but it came after Valentine’s Day, and I guess, in the spirit of the announcement you’d be wishing the Prime Minister and Jodie all the best into the future?
PETER DUTTON:
Yes, of course, yeah. I just saw that PM in the chamber then and shook his hand and said congratulations, and Jodie’s a lovely person, so I wish them every happiness. It’s obviously a special relationship that they’ve got, and I wish them every success.
RAY HADLEY:
Okay. The blowtorch to Andrew Giles’ belly. On Tuesday, our fears were confirmed when it emerged that as of last Friday, the AFP received 27 crimes committed by the dangerous non-citizens released after last year’s High Court ruling. We’re talking about 149 dangerous detainees released, including seven convicted murderers or attempted murderers, 37 sex offenders, including paedophiles, another 72 individuals convicted of assault, violent offending, kidnapping and armed robbery. To add insult to injury, it’s confirmed we’re actually paying their way as well. And Andrew Giles, as a former immigration lawyer, sits idly by allowing it to happen.
PETER DUTTON:
It’s the most remarkable set of circumstances I think I’ve seen in the migration space since the Rudd-Gillard days. The human cost here, Ray. I know these are just stats, and you know: ‘149 criminals and seven murderers’, ’37 sex offenders’, ’16 domestic violence offenders’, ’60 of them living in New South Wales’ – we can sort of rattle all those figures off, but the fact is that when there’s a crime committed, as we well know, there’s a victim at the other end of the equation, and there will be people who fall victim to these people because they are hardened criminals and they will repeat offend, and that’s what they’ve done already, as you point out, and Australian citizens will be the victims of their crimes. It’s all so unnecessary. I know the Minister and the Prime Minister want to say, ‘oh, we were directed by the High Court’. They were only directed by the High Court because they didn’t give the evidence that was required to address the concerns that the justice in the High Court expressed in June.
I think it’s clear to all and sundry now that Andrew Giles – who is the leader of the Left, along with Anthony Albanese in the Labor Party, he’s a former migration lawyer, as you point out – he was rubbing his hands together when he heard the prospect that the High Court would come down with a decision that would release these people. Because ideologically, he just doesn’t believe that they should be in detention. He doesn’t care about the crimes that they’ve committed, that’s how he thinks, and he thinks the High Court has given him cover to release these people, but there’s a human cost that is going to be exacted and I think the Government’s first charge is to take care of Australians – and they’ve failed on that front.
RAY HADLEY:
As usual, Sharri Markson found some audio for us on Sky News last night. We go back to 2015, Andrew Giles on immigration way back then:
[excerpt]
ANDREW GILES:
A Labor Government will reverse the Coalition’s attempts to undermine international law. We will double Australia’s annual humanitarian intake. Labor will get children out of detention. We’ll abolish temporary protection visas, which have been proven to cause mental harm. And, as we now push the Turnbull Government to ensure that people who have sought asylum in Australia are afforded the benefit of the international human rights obligations we have committed to and that this is subject to proper independent oversight, we will ensure when we are in government that these standards are met.
RAY HADLEY:
Okay, so they get to government, so we fast forward – thanks to Sharri Markson – from November 2015 to August 2022:
[excerpt]
ANDREW GILES:
It is also of great concern to me – as it was in opposition, it is now in government – that people should be held in immigration detention as a matter of last resort. That is something that we call for in opposition. It’s something that I’m working my way towards as a member of this Government, but that also requires me to think about those people who are, for the moment, required to be in held immigration detention facilities. I should point out that there are fewer people in those facilities now than there were as at the election of this Government.
RAY HADLEY:
Well, it’s in his DNA, he can’t help it. I’m not going to blame the poor bugger because that’s who he is, and he should never have been given the job of Immigration Minister because there’s a bias there that can’t be overcome.
PETER DUTTON:
Well, and many of the commentators are now focusing on this as to what on earth Anthony Albanese was thinking when he put this guy into the portfolio. You need somebody who can make tough decisions and can act in our national interest and keep Australians safe. This guy wears his heart on his sleeve in relation to his belief about these criminals, and that they should be released into the community, that they should not have been in immigration detention to start with, even though they’re murderers and rapists and sex offenders and paedophiles and perpetrators of other serious crimes. It’s quite remarkable, but this is a competence issue for the Prime Minister. People are really struggling under the pressure of cost of living, at the moment, every bill is going through the roof because of the bad economic decisions made by the Government, and I just think this is one of the fundamentals a Government should get right – and their instincts are all wrong.
RAY HADLEY:
Just in relation to another matter, the stage three tax cuts. It appeared on Newspoll and other polls that maybe the Prime Minister was going to escape censure: that the broken promise, because other people, in relation to this, were not going to be as severely handicapped as others, that he’d escape. So, in that case, if the polls say, ‘well, yeah, probably had to do it’ and accept his explanation that he’s had a change of heart, the circumstances changed, all that stuff. Why would they spend $40 million telling the electorate that they did the right thing? I mean, why the waste of money?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, because they they’re worried about the fact that people eventually get onto them. I think that’s exactly what’s happening now. In Dunkley, in the by-election that’s taking place in Victoria on March the 2nd, the Government is worried about their numbers there, and they’ve changed the tax cuts specifically with Dunkley in mind. That much is blatantly obvious. But what people have realised – it’s really interesting, some of the research out of Dunkley at the moment – is that people firstly, have cottoned on that they don’t get anything until the 1st of July and they’re getting 15 bucks a week when they need to find $150 a week plus in their budget to make things add up and make their budgets balance.
So, there then becomes a level of anger at the Government, ‘well, why on earth are you wasting $40 million on advertising?’, ‘why did you spend 450 million bucks on the Referendum that really just divided the nation and didn’t go anywhere?’, and I think there’s a lot of questions for the Prime Minister to, to answer, but you can’t get a straight answer out of him.
RAY HADLEY:
Now, just finally – an abbreviated chat this week because you’ve got other things you’ve got to attend to – I spoke to Dennis Shanahan yesterday who basically tried to explain in some way that Barnaby Joyce should retain his position in Parliament because he’s been there five times, the people of New England love him…
PETER DUTTON:
Now Ray, I’m just going to, I’m sorry I’ve just got to…
RAY HADLEY:
You’ve got to go?
PETER DUTTON:
Yeah, I do. I’ve just got a division, I’ve got a real division.
RAY HADLEY:
No, no that’s fine. I knew it was going to happen anyway. So I’ll catch you later, okay.
PETER DUTTON:
Apologies mate. Thank you.
RAY HADLEY:
No, that’s all right. Thank you, you’ve got to go.
[ends]