Ms O'NEIL (Hotham—Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Cyber Security) (15:06): I am grateful for the question from my friend the member for Blair. It gives me the opportunity to address the complete hypocrisy of the last question that came from those opposite. The No. 1 priority of our government is the safety of the Australian community. I want to credit the minister for immigration on the leadership that he has shown on leading us through what has been a difficult High Court decision. We always hope in Australian politics—and I certainly know that the community out there hopes for this—that, when it comes to matters like the protection of Australians, the two major parties can stand together in a bipartisan manner. So let's look at what the opposition have done in relation to community safety in recent days. What we have heard is a lot of rhetoric from those opposite talking about community safety, but we heard from the minister for immigration about something unspeakable that has happened recently, done by a frontbench member of those opposite. That is that Senator Dean Smith wrote a letter to our government lobbying for the release from detention of a convicted child sex offender. This is a remarkable thing to have done. A person who has reached a position of power in this parliament chose to use that position of power to advocate for a child sex offender. The SPEAKER: The Minister for Home Affairs will pause for a moment. I ask the Leader of the Opposition, under the standing orders, to state the point of order that he is asking the call for. Mr Dutton: It is on relevance, Mr Speaker. The minister is missing a prisoner at the moment, a high-risk prisoner. Doesn't— The SPEAKER: Resume your seat. Leader of the Opposition, this is the second time you have done this today. Ms O'Neil interjecting— The SPEAKER: The Minister for Home Affairs is not helping her or anyone else. This is not the opportunity to make debating points. The Leader of the Opposition continues to do that. Question time will not operate that way. It hasn't operated that way and it is not about to start. This habit will cease or otherwise he will be warned and he may not remain in here for the balance of question time. The minister has the call and will be heard in silence. Ms O'NEIL: I think it's pretty clear that the Leader of the Opposition doesn't want to hear the facts about what members of his frontbench have been up to. What we have heard from Senator Smith is outrageous. He wrote not once but twice to the minister advocating for the release of a child sex offender. Mr Tehan interjecting— The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Wannon is warned. Ms O'NEIL: What we know is that this particular individual sexually abused a young girl, consensually and nonconsensually. He is being held in immigration detention by our government, and that is where we intend to keep him. Now, I wish I could say the same of those opposite. I would like to report that that's the end of where the differences on community safety lie between the two parties, but that's not the case, because what we just heard from the Minister for Immigration is absolutely accurate. That is, when we brought laws before this parliament— Mr Wallace interjecting— The SPEAKER: Member for Fisher! Ms McBain interjecting— The SPEAKER: Order! The Minister for Regional Development— Mr Watts interjecting— The SPEAKER: The Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs is warned, and if the Minister for Regional Development continues to interject she'll be warned as well. I can't hear what the minister is saying, because members on my right are continually interjecting. Ministers or not, you won't be here for the remainder of question time. The minister has the call. Ms O'NEIL: Now, it's not the only difference in approach that we've seen this week, and all of you who were here in the House last night would have witnessed something that was truly extraordinary to me, and that is that when the Minister for Immigration brought forward strong laws to attach criminal offences for child sex offenders going near schools and childcare centres the opposition came in here and voted against it. I want people to remember that as they listen to the debate over the coming days, because the truth is that there is one side of politics here that is trying to do the right thing and adapt to the High Court change and do so in the interests of the community and another side of politics that's being hypocritical and just trying to score political points. (Time expired)