THE HON TANYA PLIBERSEK MP
MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
SUNRISE WITH NATALIE BARR
MONDAY, 27 NOVEMBER 2023
SUBJECTS: $255 MILLION FUNDING BOOST TO KEEP AUSTRALIANS SAFE; NEWSPOLL.
NATALIE BARR: New this morning, police and border agents will receive a major funding boost to help monitor the recently released criminals from immigration detention. The federal government will provide $255 million in funding to help bolster tracking efforts and prosecute any individuals who breach the sweeping emergency laws. At least 141 foreigners, including murderers and rapists have been set free into our community following that High Court ruling. Let's bring in Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek and Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce. Good morning to both of you.
BARNABY JOYCE: Good morning.
NATALIE BARR: Tanya, how will this funding help monitor the released detainees?
TANYA PLIBERSEK, MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER: Well this money will be for both Border Force and the Australian Federal Police and it means more compliance, more police officers, it means more checking that people are abiding by their visa conditions. It means making sure we've got an eye on people.
NATALIE BARR: Barnaby, do you support the government's funding to help the agencies monitor them?
JOYCE: Would have supported it a lot more if they did it like half a year ago. I mean this is outrageous. We've got rapists, murderers, paedophiles walking the streets. They got warning of it about six months ago. They're asleep at the wheel. They're distracted by other things. They're focussed on referendums and climate action when they're not focusing on actually how to do their job, to be competent at government. And whilst they've lost sights of the paedophiles and rapists and the murderers who are out walking the street, and now they're desperately trying to play catch up and I hope they do. I hope we do catch them up. And I can thank Peter Dutton for the work he did in the last day of Parliament last time that people were down here.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Hang on a minute.
JOYCE: But we've also got to look after, what about interest rates, cost‑of‑living, power prices ‑‑
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Peter Dutton cut compliance staff and the court case started under you.
JOYCE: It's a debacle.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Just a minute, Barnaby. When did the court case start?
JOYCE: You had a warning. They gave you a warning. The High Court that gave you a warning that ‑‑
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Did you cut staff?
JOYCE: They actually ‑‑
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Did you cut Border Force staff?
JOYCE: But you ‑ this is ‑ you're the government, Tanya. You've got to remember ‑‑
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Yeah, I know, but this started under you, and we have to clean up the mess now.
JOYCE: ‑‑ you actually won the election. You're supposed to be running the show. This did not happen under us.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: You cut staff.
JOYCE: I hate to say this it happened under you.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: The court case started. We need to clean it up now.
NATALIE BARR: Okay. Tanya, it may have started but you have known by your own admission since June that there was a 50/50 chance, I'm sure your lawyers would have told you, that they may have got out. And that's what I think people are grappling with. Why these could have been --
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Yeah, and that's why we've moved legislation and invested ‑‑
NATALIE BARR: But this is after they got out.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Yeah, for sure.
BARR: Could it have been put in place before they got out, just in case murderers and rapists and child sex offenders could have been walking the streets, just in case.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, you need to know what the High Court's deciding and that's why we're boosting ‑‑
BARR: But do you though?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: ‑‑ we're boosting resources now for Border Force and the Federal Police.
BARR: What about a what if?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: And it's why we've toughened the legislation to make sure that these people face the highest standard of scrutiny of anybody. They've got ankle bracelets, there's work they can't do, there's places they can't go. They're under very strict arrangements like curfews and so on. And this extra money, the $255 million is to make sure that people are abiding by those conditions.
BARR: Yeah, Tanya, and ‑‑
JOYCE: The highest form, the highest form of scrutiny is to have them locked up. That's the highest form of scrutiny. Not walking the streets.
BARR: Tanya, it's good now but I think people can't grapple why you couldn't have put it in place even before you got the court's ruling, even before you got the court's reasonings for the ruling just in case. How would that have harmed anyone?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well we've moved very quickly. We had legislation into the Parliament ‑‑
BARR: But after?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: ‑‑ just the week after.
BARR: After.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Yeah, well you need to ‑‑
BARR: Why not before?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: ‑‑ know the decision before you can legislate.
BARR: But you don't know the ruling, you don't know all the reasons.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: No.
BARR: So why couldn't it ‑ I just don't get why you couldn't have done it beforehand just in case.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: But we know they're out now and now that they're out they've got the toughest scrutiny, including things like ankle bracelets, tracking devices and we've got $255 million for Border Force and the Australian Federal Police to make sure that people are abiding by those conditions. And this comes after the previous government actually cut staff in this area. They cut compliance. I mean a lot of these people were let in when Peter Dutton was the immigration minister.
JOYCE: You're responsible for it. You're responsible for government.
BARR: Well look, Australia's watching this. It is one of the biggest issues that's facing the country at the moment. People are not happy obviously. Your government's popularity has taken a nosedive this morning. Let's look at the numbers of this new polling by Newspoll. It's revealed the Opposition is now neck‑and‑neck with Labor. In primary votes Labor has fallen to 31 per cent. That's the lowest result since you took office, while the Coalition sits at 38 per cent. On a two‑party preferred basis, this is the important one, Labor and the Coalition are now 50/50. Anthony Albanese remains preferred Prime Minister leading Peter Dutton by 11, but that's firmed up as well. Tanya, this is a warning, is it?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well we never take anything granted. We take nothing for granted and that's why we've been working really hard as a government to take some pressure off people. We know that they're feeling under a lot of cost‑of‑living pressure. It's why we've got cheaper childcare for 1.3 million families. It's why we've halved the cost of medicines. It's why we've made it easier to see a doctor for free. It's why we've got free TAFE places out there. It's why we've supported increases in pensions and Commonwealth Rent Assistance. It's why we've supported wage rises for Australian workers. We've put $11 billion on the table to make sure that people working in aged care get the decent pay they deserve for looking after the most vulnerable Australians. And we're going to keep doing that, taking a little bit of pressure off ordinary families so it's a bit easier to make ends meet. That's what we've got to focus on.
BARR: Barnaby, are you doing guys doing a bit of a fist pump with this Newspoll result this morning?
BARNABY JOYCE: Not at all. We're going to continue our hard work. This is what happens when the government's distracted by climate action and the referendum, we have people who can't afford their food bill, can't afford groceries at food banks, can't afford the power bill being cut off, can't afford their interest rates, can't afford fuel, and to top it all off we've got paedophiles, rapists and murderers walking the street. This government is completely and utterly distracted. They're not competent at their job and the polling's reflecting that. And in some way suffering the sin of hubris. We're going to continue to work because we've got to shine a light on exactly the sort of government this nation's landed itself with.
BARR: Okay, we've got a big week ahead. We thank you both, we'll see you next week.
END
