THE HON. MARK DREYFUS QC MP
SHADOW ATTORNEY-GENERAL
SHADOW MINISTER FOR NATIONAL SECURITY
MEMBER FOR ISAACS
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
PRESS CONFERENCE
MELBOURNE
TUESDAY, 9 APRIL 2019
SUBJECTS: Peter Dutton cash for citizenship scandal, upcoming election date.
DREYFUS: Peter Dutton needs to give a full explanation of his dodgy dealings with disgraced former Liberal MP Santo Santoro. There were extraordinary revelations last night on the Four Corners program including, and I'm going to read it out because it's so extraordinary, Mr Santoro recorded as saying this: There's nobody else anywhere who's better placed than me to help you through this particular part of the project. I can go to somebody in the Ministers office and say can you have a close look at this?
Now all we've learned so far from Mr Dutton is that he did have the lunch with Mr Huang at the time that Mr Huang was making his bid for Australian citizenship. We know that Mr Santoro received tens of thousands of dollars from Mr Huang and all that has been said so far by Mr Dutton is that he claims he didn't discuss Mr Huang's citizenship with him during this secret lunch at the Sydney restaurant.
Now, this is cash for access. Mr Dutton, the Immigration Minister, has to explain all of his dealings with Mr Santoro, he has to explain everything that he did in relation to Mr Huang's citizenship, and he has to release all documents, all emails, all correspondence between him and Mr Santoro concerning Mr Huang's bid for citizenship, and all documents, all emails, all correspondence concerning his own involvement in Mr Huang's citizenship application. It's beyond belief that someone can pay a lobbyist in this country, a disgraced former Liberal MP at that, someone who's up to his neck in all of the machinations of the LNP in Queensland right up to the current moment. Someone that describes Mr Dutton as one of his best friends, and this having been revealed what we now need from Mr Dutton is some actual explanations. How many times has Mr Dutton or his office had representations from Mr Santoro? How many times has Mr Santoro been paid cash to arrange meetings with Mr Dutton? And was Mr Dutton aware of Mr Santoro taking cash payments in return for arranging meeting with him?
As I say, we need to see the documents, we need to see the documents because all that we know is that ASIO finally put its foot down and said no to Mr Huang's citizenship application and what we don't know is whether Mr Dutton was pushing the application, whether he was on the point of approving the application for Mr Huang's citizenship, and it was only because at the last minute ASIO said no, this man is not suitable for Australian citizenship that the citizenship didn't actually happen.
On another matter, it's about time that Mr Morrison called the election. It's about time Mr Morrison stopped being a wimp, stopped simply waiting for millions of dollars a day to be spent on advertising trying to make his failing government look good. It's about time he called the election. Enough of this delay. Enough of spending a million dollars a day of tax payers money on advertising, simply trying to make a failing government look better in the eyes of Australians, pretending that there's infrastructure spending going on for infrastructure that hasn't even been built. Pretending that there is money being spent on hospitals and schools when in fact there have been cuts to the federal budget on hospitals and schools enough of this government advertising using tax payers money at a million dollars a day. We need to have the election called now. Any questions?
JOURNALIST: Mr Huang was not granted citizenship in the end and he cant even return to Australia, doesn't that prove that the advances to Mr Dutton were unsuccessful?
DREYFUS: It proves that ultimately he didn't get citizenship, but what we don't know is what Mr Dutton's dealings with Mr Santoro over Mr Huang's citizenship actually involved. We don't know whether Mr Dutton pushed this along. We don't know whether he fast tracked the processing of Mr Huang's application only to have at the last minute, ASIO put their foot down and say that this citizenship cant happen. And Id make the point that there are 250,000 people who are fully qualified for Australian citizenship who have served their qualifying time and have been permanent residents for over four years. There is 250,000 people waiting to even have their applications for citizenship processed by this failing government. They didn't get to go and have lunch with the Immigration Minister, Mr Huang did.
JOURNALIST: What evidence do you have of any wrong doing by Mr Dutton?
DREYFUS: We need to examine what happened here. Mr Dutton is trying to wave this away like he waved away the scandalous giving of a $423 million dollar contract to Paladin, a company with its then company headquarters at a beach shack on Kangaroo Island. Mr Dutton tried to wave that one away by saying he had no sight of that. Well it's not good enough that a senior cabinet minister, someone who, forty members of the Liberal party in August last year thought was suitable to be Prime Minister of this country. It's not good enough for him to simply, with an airy wave of the hand, say nothing to see here, I didn't talk about Mr Huang's citizenship when I had this secret lunch with him in Sydney. He needs to come clean. He needs to give us the detail. He needs to show to the Australian community that there isn't anything untoward about this cash for access which is already apparent from the Four Corners report last night.
JOURNALIST: How many lunches and dinners have you had with political donors?
DREYFUS: Well, it's absolutely standard in Australian political life for fundraising lunches and fundraising dinners to be held at which people who wish to make donations to political parties, be that the Greens political party, or the Liberal Party or the National Party or the Australian Labor Party, to make donations and to have lunch with frontbenchers or backbenchers; that's a standard part of Australian political life, those donations are declared. This was something different. This was a paid lobbyist, someone who claims to be a senior cabinet ministers best friend, arrange a secret lunch. It's not portrayed as ordinary fundraising, it's not portrayed as making a donation to Mr Dutton's campaign or to the LNP. What this is, is cash for access. So very different from the question of whether or not politicians might take donations and have lunches and dinners with people who give donations
JOURNALIST: Mr Dreyfus have you ever had a lunch with a lobbyist and their client?
DREYFUS: I've attended a whole range of lunches and dinners and try to think whether I've ever attended a breakfast where people have made donations to attend the event and I would say again that's an absolutely standard part of Australian political life and it has got nothing to do with what we are talking about here, which is a paid lobbyist who happens to be a disgraced former LNP member of parliament, arranging a secret meal for his client, Mr Huang, with a senior cabinet Minister
JOURNALIST: Just on that you did say that was different from regular attendance at events. I want to be clear, have you ever been at a lunch organised by a lobbyist with their client not a paid political donation event at a lunch or a dinner with a lobbyist and their client which is also standard practise in Canberra?
DREYFUS: Not that I recall and I am trying to draw a distinction here between what I say is standard fundraising activity for all Australian political parties and this very specific arranging of a secret meal for someone, as it happens a billionaire who wanted something from the Australian government, he wanted something from this particular Minister, Mr Dutton. What he wanted was citizenship, Australian citizenship that's a very different situation to someone who is making a donation to a political party and is coming to have a meal or a dinner with a politician.
JOURNALIST: Can I ask one more on a different matter? There is one final regulatory step for the Adani approval to be ticked off this week. If that does get the go ahead will Labor, if elected into government, seek to review the Adani process if it's rushed through?
DREYFUS: What Labor is insisting on is there be an absolutely proper process in relation to every single aspect of this particular mining development and what we are seeing from the LNP, from the Liberal Party from the National Party, I am not sure if you can make these distinctions, is pressure being brought to bear on the Federal Minister or ministers who are making the relevant decisions. That is not the way this should be done. All sorts of extraneous political considerations seem to be being brought to bear on the making of the relevant decisions and I can assure everyone Labor in government will abide with the relevant legislation
JOURNALIST: So Labor wont seek to review the decision?
DREYFUS: Labor will abide the relevant legislation which includes the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act of the Commonwealth.
Nothing further? Thanks very much.
ENDS
