I never thought that I would see, in my lifetime, a repeat of the horrific scenes which were seen, and that we’ve read about, during the course of the Second World War. But to see people of Jewish faith cowering in their homes, being dragged from cupboards out into the street—when children are still abducted and still held hostage, this Prime Minister needs to stand up and to be united with the Jewish community. And he’s not. The words have been qualified, the message has been divided and the Australian public has looked to the Prime Minister and not identified this man compared to the man they voted for in May 2022, less than 18 months ago.
Mr DUTTON (Dickson—Leader of the Opposition) (14:34): Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. I move:
That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the Leader of the Opposition from moving the following motion immediately—
That the House:
(1) expresses its grave concern at the vicious rise of antisemitic vilification in our country, and the breakdown in social cohesion occurring in our communities;
(2) expresses its grave concern that social disharmony has reached dangerous levels, and that community safety is now at significant risk;
(3) condemns the Prime Minister’s failure to show the strong leadership required to overcome divisions within his own caucus, to stamp out antisemitism and bring our country together;
(4) expresses its concern that community safety in this country has been further threatened by the release of more than 80 hardcore criminals from immigration detention into the Australian community;
(5) expresses its deep concern that this cohort includes individuals who have committed acts of child rape, murder, sexual assault, and other violent crimes;
(6) condemns the Government for catastrophically and demonstrably failing to prepare contingencies for High Court proceedings where it fully aware of the risks;
(7) condemns the Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs for consequently undertaking an unprecedented and shocking mass release of dangerous criminal non-citizens into the Australian community; and
(8) therefore calls on the Prime Minister to:
(a) understand that his priority must be the protection of the Australian community at home;
(b) cancel his plans to travel to the United States;
(c) urgently convene a National Cabinet meeting to formulate a strong and coherent response to combat the rise of antisemitism, repair social cohesion and protect community safety;
(d) urgently bring forward any legislation necessary to neutralise the threat posed by the hardcore criminals his Government has released into the Australian Community; and
(e) amend the days and hours of sitting to facilitate the passage of such legislation prior to the rising of the Parliament this week.
The reality is that this Prime Minister has been missing in action—missing in action when the Australian people need him most. The Australian Prime Minister has one of the most serious charges in this country: that is to take care of the Australian people; to protect and to defend them; to make sure that, where threats exist, the Prime Minister utilises the powers at his disposal to deal with those threats, to neutralise them, and to keep our country and our people safe. And he fails at the first hurdle.
The dreadful attacks that we saw on 7 October in Israel resulted in terrorists—a listed terrorist organisation here in our country and in other countries in the West and other parts of the developed world, Hamas—going in and massacring people of Jewish faith. It was a disgraceful act and rightly condemned by both sides of politics. It has given rise to a discussion here in this country, in the United States and elsewhere in the world, and it has seen a significant rise in antisemitic behaviour.
I commend those members, one of them that I can identify, on the opposite side, for having the guts to stand up and to speak strongly in favour of the Jewish community and against those who perform provocative acts, calling Jews names that shouldn’t be repeated anywhere, but saying: ‘Eff the Jews,’ and, ‘Gas the Jews.’ And this Prime Minister had a solemn duty—
Mr Dreyfus interjecting—
The SPEAKER: The Attorney-General will cease interjecting.
Mr DUTTON: to stand up and make sure that his government spoke with one voice. But did they do that? No. And what the Australian public has seen—and what has shocked the Jewish community in recent weeks, since 7 October—is that this government is speaking out of both sides of its mouth. Let’s call it out for what it is. You’ve got Senator Wong in the other place, the foreign minister of this country, who is at odds with her Prime Minister. The caucus is split right down the middle. And the Australian public sees that this is a government where the wheels are quickly falling off. It’s given rise to social disharmony in this country. There are Jewish kids who are afraid to go to school. We’ve got groups who are going into predominantly Jewish communities in our country to try and provoke them into a response.
And this Prime Minister is flying off overseas again, when he should be staying in this country to deal with the issue. ‘What could I do?’ he says. What could he possibly do about it? Well, Prime Minister, I’ve written to you, and what you should do is to consult with the premiers and the chief ministers and immediately convene a meeting of the National Cabinet, to get a better understanding of the police response and to understand what the security and intelligence agencies are providing, and then to collate that information and to have a coherent response which provides support and an underpinning to security for people of Jewish faith in this country, when they need it most, in their hour of need. This Prime Minister has gone missing.
I never thought that I would see, in my lifetime, a repeat of the horrific scenes which were seen, and that we’ve read about, during the course of the Second World War. But to see people of Jewish faith cowering in their homes, being dragged from cupboards out into the street—when children are still abducted and still held hostage, this Prime Minister needs to stand up and to be united with the Jewish community. And he’s not. The words have been qualified, the message has been divided and the Australian public has looked to the Prime Minister and not identified this man compared to the man they voted for in May 2022, less than 18 months ago.
What compounds it is the fact that, in the last 48 hours, we learned that the hapless minister for immigration has taken a decision to release 83 hardened criminals—rapists, paedophiles, murderers; he won’t disclose the rest of the detail—to live at large in the community with the Australian public, and he’s done nothing about it. The government knew this case was being decided in the High Court. They have the benefit of the advice of the first law officer of this country, the Solicitor-General, and countless KCs at their disposal. The High Court had given indications in relation to this matter. A competent minister would have dealt with this matter by way of legislation at the first available opportunity, and he would have rushed that legislation through this parliament so as to prevent the 83 from going out into the community with the significant potential of committing more offences against the Australian public.
One primary charge, as I say, for this Prime Minister, is to keep the Australian public safe. There is legislation now being drafted; we saw in a trainwreck interview by the defence minister, the Deputy Prime Minister, this morning that there is legislation being drafted to address this issue. We hear from Senator Wong in the Senate today that there will be legislation introduced into the parliament. So we know now that, when the government have been called out and they’re under pressure, there is actually a legislative response available; we now know that. Why is it available now but it wasn’t available before the 83 were released into the community? The minister refuses to answer that question. It turns out that this minister has released these dangerous criminals into the community without a visa. Some of those have been left out, and you saw his evasive, tricky and incompetent responses today. Did the Prime Minister pull him into line? Not a chance, because this Prime Minister is as weak as water, and the Australian public are working out what a fake and a fraud he and his government have turned out to be.
The Australian public at the moment know that they’ve got a government who has made every situation in their lives more difficult. We know that the cost-of-living pressures are putting enormous pressure on families because the government has made incompetent decisions in two budgets. We now know that in many parts of the country Australians are suffering because of a crime crisis in their communities; we know that. How does this Prime Minister respond? He goes off overseas again. Prime Minister, don’t leave this country until you have dealt with these issues. Don’t hop on the plane again to the United States. You’ve just met with President Biden—an incredibly important relationship, but you’ve just met with the President. The first responsibility for you, Prime Minister, is to be here and take care of the Australian public. Don’t continue to abrogate your responsibilities.
How can the government release 83 of the people who have significant criminal records and keep in detention nine when they are all subject to the same finding from the High Court? How can that be the case? How can you not have legal capacity or legal capability to keep the 83 in but you can to keep the nine in? Has this been explained by the Prime Minister? No, it has not. So the Prime Minister should not leave this country until the National Cabinet has been convened to provide assurances and support and comfort and safety to people of the Jewish community. That is the first priority for this Prime Minister—not to get on yet another plane and head overseas.
Prime Minister, don’t leave Canberra and don’t leave this parliament until legislation has been passed which will give effect to providing safety to the Australian people. What is happening is these people with significant criminal records, having committed significant rapes and assaults and murders against Australian citizens, are being released into the community, and you stand condemned.