Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

The dimensions of their injections suggest that the facts confront them again. The two core claims that underpin the member for Wentworth’s engagement in this fear campaign on asylum seekers are in fact based on statistical fiction. These core claims are nothing more than Liberal Party fantasy. But they have been dreamt up in the same dark corners where the Liberal Party dreamt up the Pacific solution, where the Liberal Party dreamt up children behind razor wire and where the Liberal Party dreamt up other parallel measures.

The Liberal Party is not about fact on the question of immigration policy; it is about the politics of fear. There is no substantive basis to their claims of policy success. There is no basis to their claims of policy failure. Asylum claims in Australia by Afghans, Sri Lankans and Iraqis have basically followed the global trend around the world. When numbers have fallen around the world, they have fallen in Australia. When numbers have increased around the world, they have increased in Australia. What we have seen in this place and beyond it is the party of children overboard, the party of Cornelia Rau, the party of Vivian Alvarez and, of course, the party of the forged email affair at it again at every level. On the question of immigration policy, this is a party without factual credibility on people smuggling, a party without policy credibility on people smuggling, but, worst of all, this is a party without one skerrick of moral compass when it comes to people smuggling as well.

Mr Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.

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