Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I do like the member for Fadden. He will be disappointed that I am not wearing my bootstraps as I stand to speak about this very Labor budget. I want to let the member for Fadden know that my electorate is very pleased about the benefits that will come from this very Labor budget, to this very Labor and indeed very needy electorate, which is what Labor budgets tend to be about. They are about assisting those people in our community who are probably more disadvantaged than others and who are in greater need of services. In a moment I will talk about my community and how this budget will be of benefit to them. Firstly, however, in relation to how the previous Howard government dealt with illegal entrants, the infamous Pacific solution—and though I will say this and it will go into Hansard, I stand to be corrected—border protection might have cost about $100 million but I remember the figure of about $1 billion as being the cost to the Australian taxpayer for running the Pacific solution.

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