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

I thank the member for his question. On the first point, as I said to the honourable member yesterday, the practice of this government—and, I believe, the practice of previous governments—is not to comment on ongoing security, operational and associated intelligence matters. That is the first point. That is the responsibility of any responsible government on questions of national security, something which the Leader of the Opposition obviously finds amusing. We on this side of the House do not. The second point I would make, in relation to the second part of his question, is that he refers to undetected arrivals. I would simply say that the detection rate under this government is considerably better than that under the last government. The interception rate under this government—wait for it—is 94 per cent. Under the previous government it was 87 per cent. Can I say to the member, therefore, that he might actually again put facts instead of fear. Could he also on this question possibly reflect on the responsibility of a responsible shadow minister, which is to engage his counterpart on questions of security and operational matters. There are protocols which govern these things. I would have thought that any responsible member, let alone a member of the shadow executive, would adhere to those protocols.

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