May 18, 2017
RAY HADLEY:
Every Thursday we try to talk to the Immigration Minister Peter Dutton and the Minister’s on the line from Brisbane this morning. Minister, good morning.
PETER DUTTON:
Good morning, Ray.
RAY HADLEY:
Well, well, well, they’re coming after you, the Admin Appeals Tribunal, you’ve been a naughty boy, you’re in trouble with the Law Council of Australia. Have you lost sleep over that?
PETER DUTTON:
No, I think if you tell the truth you should sleep well at night and I think people, when they have a look at some of these cases that are being decided by the AAT or in some of the courts, people who believe that they’re above the law, above scrutiny by the public; I think should be the ones that shouldn’t rest too well at night. If people are deciding matters and they aren’t meeting community expectations then I don’t see why people shouldn’t face scrutiny over that.
RAY HADLEY:
Okay. Well it’s almost side-splittingly funny that the Law Council President – whom I don’t know – Fiona McLeod should say; Tribunal members reviewed government decisions in accordance with law, not personal preference or ideology.
She must be on another planet given – and I’m not talking about just this tribunal the AAT, I’m talking about magistrates, judges of all persuasions – if she thinks that they’re background…maybe she needs to have a good long look Immigration Minister at the Magistrate’s Court at Southport to see exactly what the Labor-appointed magistrates do in that court among many courts across the country.
PETER DUTTON:
Or in Petrie Ray, I mean it’s not that long ago we were talking about the Grand Magistrate at Petrie who had presided over the matter where university students climbed up on to my roof of the Electorate Office; the police and fire brigade had to bring her down and, as your listeners will recall from the time that this case was heard in his decision, the learned Magistrate said that had it been his daughter he would have been proud of the fact that she was up on the roof.
Now, I don’t think that’s written in any criminal code or any statute anywhere, that approach. I think for people to believe that magistrates or judges or tribunal members don’t bring their own personal views to matters is a nonsense and it’s embarrassing that somebody would make such a statement, but anyway, that’s for them to answer.
From my perspective I’m going to continue to do what I think is the right thing and that is cancel visas where people don’t have a legitimate claim to be here or they’ve committed criminal offences and I just can’t abide the Australian people or taxpayers being taken for mugs and I think in some of these cases clearly that has happened.
RAY HADLEY:
Now I saw your comments on Sky News and I know you spoke earlier this week with Alan suggesting only half of the detainees on Manus Island have been found to be genuine refugees – and I note that you said obviously they won’t be going to the USA because they’re not genuine refugees – but you suggested that perhaps they’ll be the problem for the PNG Government, not the Australian Government. Is that still the case?
PETER DUTTON:
Well under the deal that was struck by Kevin Rudd and Prime Minister O’Neill – and Labor’s got a short memory on this; I mean Bill Shorten’s all critical, but he was sitting around the Cabinet table when these boats were arriving in great number – and the deal struck between Mr Rudd and Mr O’Neill meant that if people were found to be refugees, then they would settle in PNG and we operate under the same arrangements, the same deal that was struck by Labor at the time; so that is the arrangement.
Now, for a lot of refugees we’re hoping that they will be eligible for the arrangement to go to the United States, but that’s up to the US, they’ll decide who goes to their country, rightly, and there will be some who have been found not to be refugees – they’re economic migrants essentially, not refugees by any stretch of the imagination – they have to go back home, they have to go back to their country of origin because as we spoke about this week Ray, we’ve spent $13.7 billion on cleaning this mess up of the 50,000 who arrived on boats since 2007-08 – $13.7 billion.
There are pensioners across the country who can’t afford to turn on heating this winter and yet we’re spending almost $14 billion on cleaning up this mess – and I believe very strongly, given the state that Bill Shorten’s in with his Left wing of his party, that if they’re re-elected the boats would restart and we would be back to square one. This nightmare would be relived.
RAY HADLEY:
Speaking of such matters; there was an attack in Sydney’s west this week. On Tuesday a 37 year-old, Wol Kuac Wol Wol was charged after allegedly groping three women and damaging a bus. I heard on one report he’s a Sudanese refugee. Are you aware of Wol Kuac Wol Wol?
PETER DUTTON:
I’m not aware of the particular case, but we do get referrals from police agencies, we’ve been working with the police very closely to identify people who are non-citizens who commit crimes and if it’s within the law, then we can cancel their visas.
Victoria had a particular problem with the Sudanese – we discussed that before –we’ve cancelled six visas down there for people that have been involved in Apex gangs; we’re having a look at another seven at the moment.
So that work across each state, each jurisdiction goes on every day and the police do a great job with our officers from the Australian Border Force as well. So there’s no shortage of work unfortunately.
RAY HADLEY:
Now, just on a matter which we haven’t addressed: the announcement by the Prime Minister on 457 visa holders and the changes that will be introduced. I had a well written note from the Managing Partner of Blenheim Partners, Mr Gregory Robinson. He says we’re leading the way in seeking amendments to the Government’s announced policy initiatives to the 457 visa, in particular potential for loss of opportunity for the country and impact on capability, diversity, innovation and so it goes on.
Now, they’re an organisation that deal with executives and they make the point that really high-powered executives who might be coming to the country because they have special skills, won’t come under the new arrangements.
Now, I’ll talk about that in detail with you at another time, but I’ve also been approached via email and phone call by a lot of restaurateurs – and I’m not talking about the big end of town, I’m not talking about the fancy ones on wharves, on harbours – I’m talking about the suburbs of Sydney and Brisbane where they might have an Italian restaurant and they have a chef coming out here to work and if it works out, he wants to become a citizen – he might be from Italy, obviously, or from Greece if it’s a Greek restaurant or the like.
They say that things are going to be made so much harder for them. Is there any thought of any dispensation to some industries in relation to 457 visa holders?
PETER DUTTON:
Well Ray we’ve tried to strike a common sense balance here. So I think there is a cultural issue here where we’ve got young Australians who can be trained up to work in restaurants or fast food outlets or whatever else. I mean the expectation is that they have to work and the welfare system, you know, we’ve tightened it up in the Budget, but people would say that young people living a passive life on welfare, that somehow that’s an acceptable way to live your life, it’s not. People have worked hard all of their lives and paid taxes and the expectation is that young people who are of working age, have a capacity to work, should work.
Now, if there are particular circumstances where in regional areas they can’t find workers or they can’t get local people to work there because there’s low youth unemployment or whatever, then there are circumstances that we can look at individually and see what we can do.
RAY HADLEY:
Yeah okay, I take that, but Peter you’re not going to train blokes to cook pizza and pasta in a couple of years. I mean you’re talking about young people and you and I both know the most productive immigrants we’ve ever had in this country are the ones that came here after the war from Europe – be it Italy, from Greece, from Malta, and all the other nations that came here – I mean these are the lifters not the leaners these people; they’re working.
PETER DUTTON:
Ray, I guess the point here is that there are circumstances where workers can be brought in where they can’t find an Australian worker to fill that job and we haven’t, in abolishing the 457 programme…it’s not as if we’ve put an end to the ability for employers to bring foreign workers in. If they can demonstrate that there’s not somebody available to fill that job locally, so they need to go through market testing – which they didn’t before – that is, that they need to properly advertise the job and find somebody – and there may be a migrant that’s been here a long time who’s willing to fill that position in the Italian restaurant, for example and there may not be – and in that circumstance we can work with that company, but there are a couple of cases that have been in the media in the last week where I’ve asked the Department to go and have a look at and it turns out that they’re just factually incorrect; that either the person hadn’t applied for a visa or there was another visa category that they could have applied under. So we’ve just tightened it up dramatically, but as I say, it’s a common sense approach.
We don’t want to see businesses close, we want to support businesses, help them grow, employ more young Australians, but there are some businesses you look at where you think; well I’m pretty sure that we could train up young Australians or help support Australians – in this Budget we put a billion and a half dollars together to train about 300,000 apprentices and I don’t want those kids being displaced from work.
So it is just a question of trying to get the balance right, but again we can have a look at individual cases and see what might suit them, but the default position should be to employ an Australian.
RAY HADLEY:
Okay. Appreciate your time. Look, there’s breaking news here I’m just reading from the screen, the Australian Federal Police says the ATO officer arrested is Michael Cranston, the father of Adam Cranston. He’s been arrested earlier today and he’s been charged…the ATO official, this is the Deputy Commissioner, Minister, according to Sky News reporting right now, he’s been charged as part of a tax fraud investigation. Crikey.
PETER DUTTON:
Well my understanding Ray is that the Police Commissioner Andrew Colvin will have something to say or the Federal Police will have something to say at the appropriate time, but obviously it’s a serious investigation and it shows the good work that the Federal Police and the other agencies do on a daily basis. So I think there’ll be more information available soon enough.
RAY HADLEY:
It’s one thing for the son of the Deputy Commissioner to be arrested, it’s another thing for a Deputy Commissioner to be charged.
PETER DUTTON:
Well Ray, I mean without commenting on that case, again, obviously it’s a sensitive issue, but none of us are above the law; not Ministers, not public officials and not judges, not magistrates, everybody in our society is equal, they abide by the law equally and obviously, ultimately, we’re answerable to the people.
RAY HADLEY:
Okay. Appreciate your time, we’ll talk next week if possible.
PETER DUTTON:
Thanks Ray. See you, mate.
RAY HADLEY:
That’s Peter Dutton, the Immigration Minister on the line from Brisbane.
Source: https://minister.homeaffairs.gov.au/peterdutton/Pages/R-Hadley,-Radio-2GB.aspx