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Transcript | 3AW Mornings | 28 January 2025

January 28, 2025

Tuesday 28 January 2025
Interview on 3AW Mornings
Subjects: Labor settles thousands of illegal arrivals and their families
E&OE…………………………………………………………………………….

TOM ELLIOTT: I was a bit shocked to read this today. I'm hoping I've got it wrong. But apparently, the federal government has given out [2158] partner and family visas to the relatives of illegal asylum seekers. Apparently, these are people who arrived in Australia illegally prior to 2013. The rules were then changed when, I think, Tony Abbott won the election that year, and we had detention centres and all the rest of it. But it seems to me if it becomes public knowledge, and it basically has now, that even if in the past, people who came here illegally can eventually be given visas so the rest of their families can join them. That would be a green light for the people smugglers. Our next guest is Shadow Home Affairs Minister, Victorian Senator James Paterson, good morning.

JAMES PATERSON: Good morning, Tom.

ELLIOTT: Have I got the history right here? So if you arrived prior to 2013 and you can stay here for long enough, you can get visas for your relatives to come and join you?

PATERSON: That's essentially right. But let me step your listeners through it carefully, Tom. So you might remember when Labor was last in power in the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd era, they allowed 800 boats carrying 50,000 people to come to Australia. We had 1,200 people tragically die at sea. And in 2013, in an attempt to stop this from happening, Kevin Rudd, as Prime Minister, said if you come here by boat, you will never permanently settle in Australia. In fact, he took out newspaper ads in newspapers across South East Asia to let them know that this very tough new policy. Now, that was a policy that was kept in place by the Abbott, Morrison, and Turnbull governments and the policy mechanism to deliver that was Temporary Protection Visas, which meant you could be here in Australia as long as it wasn't safe for you to go home to your country of origin. But if your country of origin ever became safe, then you would, your visa would end, and you would go home. Now, the Albanese government, in its wisdom, abolished Temporary Protection Visas, and by doing so, they allowed firstly 19,000 people who came here by boat illegally to stay in violation of Kevin Rudd's promise. But now we learned that in addition to those 19,000, they've allowed those people to bring in their family members, up to [2158] of them.

ELLIOTT: Okay. So effectively, those asylum seekers who came here before 2013, when Kevin Rudd changed the rules, have been rewarded for illegally gaining entry to Australia. Do you think this might sort of turn on the green light for the people smugglers again, or is it just like a one off historical issue?

PATERSON: This is exactly what I'm worried about, Tom, because basically Australia's resolve was being tested here, that the promise that we made to ourselves that we would protect our borders and keep them secure by not allowing people who came by boat to stay had been broken not once but twice. It was first broken by the Albanese government by allowing those people who came on boats to stay, and then it was broken again by allowing them to bring their family members in. And that's a terrible message to others thinking that they might be able to pull this off. And to people smugglers who will think, great, I've got something to sell to desperate people.

ELLIOTT: Just on Temporary Protection Visas. So let's just say we admitted a refugee from Gaza, you know because his home has been blown up, he doesn't have anywhere to live or whatever. The infrastructure's all been smashed flat. You know, does that mean that in a few years, if they fix Gaza up, we can't send that person back?

PATERSON: Well, it depends on what the Albanese government does. So as you know, they brought in 3,000 people on tourist visas from Gaza. Some of them have now been converted into humanitarian visas. And it is not clear whether the government intends to allow them to stay permanently or whether they would return home if Gaza is safe to return to in the future.

ELLIOTT: Right. And if Peter Dutton, your boss, wins the next election, does that all change?

PATERSON: Well, we've said that Temporary Protection Visas must be reintroduced, that of course Australia has international obligations to protect people who have a genuine and well-founded fear of persecution, who cannot safely go home. But that it is a good thing for people to be able to return home if it becomes safe for them to do so. So we will reintroduce Temporary Protection Visas and we will restore Operation Sovereign Borders, which successfully stopped the boats under Tony Abbott and his successors. Because under this government, we've now had 26 boats attempt the journey in the last two years, and seven of them have reached the Australian mainland in a pretty serious crisis for border protection.

ELLIOTT: Am I right in thinking that a lot of the people trying to come here are from India and China?

PATERSON: There has been a big increase in people coming from China in the last couple of years. There are people coming from India and other source destination countries like Sri Lanka, and some of those are new developments. And the particularly new development is the fact that they've been able to reach the Australian mainland without detection. That's because this government failed to deliver aerial surveillance, which is down 21% and maritime patrol days, which is down 15% on their watch.

ELLIOTT: But it is odd, is it not? That one of the biggest sources of tourists is people from China who fly here on an aeroplane. Stay in a hotel. Gambling at Crown Casino. Watch the Australian Open, then go home. And at the same time, other Chinese people are trying to get here in boats.

PATERSON: It certainly is possible that someone coming from China to Australia would have a well-founded fear of persecution if, for example, they're a democratic activist. But it's also the case that some of the migrants who are attempting to come by boat are not people seeking asylum. They are economic migrants looking for opportunity in Australia, and they don't meet the criteria for asylum. And regardless of whether they meet it or not, if they try and come here by boat, they should not be allowed to settle in Australia because that does send a very dangerous message to others to try and do the same.

ELLIOTT: Alright, thank you, Senator. Senator James Paterson there, shadow Home Affairs Minister.

ENDS

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