Clarification by Minister for Home Affairs

Sir, thank you for allowing me to clarify in the interest of accuracy. I think it is important that we are accurate to this House.

Going back to Assoc Prof Jamus Lim, he said today, "It is useful for me to clarify that the specific Parliamentary Question that I had posed last year mentioned specifically non-violent offenders, of which are in a number of categorisations, including sexual crimes and misdemeanours. It is a bit of a mischaracterisation to argue to let paedophiles back into the system."

So, he is suggesting that, last year, his Parliamentary Question (PQ) excluded sexual crimes and misdemeanours. That is not true. The PQ specifically last year said: to ask the Minister for Home Affairs whether the Government will consider expanding the coverage of the Yellow Ribbon project such that ex-offenders of non-violent crimes will, contingent on an extended period of good behaviour following successful re-integration in society, be eligible for the elimination of their criminal history from public records and hence not report this record for employment purposes. [Please refer to "Expanding Coverage of Yellow Ribbon Project to Include Ex-offenders of Non-violent Crimes", Official Report, 2 February 2021, Vol 95, Issue 17, Written Answers to Questions section.]

Sexual crimes were not excluded if they were non-violent, nor were misdemeanours excluded if they were non-violent. My comments, both last year and this year, were based on what Assoc Prof Jamus Lim then asked and suggested, rather than what he thinks he now has asked. That is the first point.

The second point: Members will remember the case of Mr Robinson who sent across sexually explicit images to try and groom a child; it is non-violent. You want him to be in a childcare centre or serve as a security officer?

So, let us be careful and let us also be clear what we said and what we did not say in Parliament.