Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

'Rubbish,' she says. Bring it on. If they are not scared of the result, bring on the legislation and bring it on now. For weeks this Prime Minister has been saying that the most important issue before the parliament was protecting our borders through the Malaysian people swap deal, and what have we seen over the last 24 hours? We have seen the government debate everything under the sun, put votes on everything, but the one thing they do not want to debate or vote upon is the one thing they were saying was essential for days and weeks. Shame on this government. What has happened in the last 24 hours? Is border protection no longer important? Have the boats stopped coming from Indonesia? Has the people smugglers' business model suddenly been destroyed? What has changed? What has changed over the last 24 hours? I will tell you what has changed: the Prime Minister knows she lacks the numbers in the parliament to carry her legislation. She lacks the numbers in the parliament to do the most vital function of any government—to protect the borders of this nation. I say a party with no policy on border protection is a party with no right to be in government. A government that cannot secure its border protection policy from the parliament is a government which should immediately call an election. That is what it should do. It should call an election, which is what the last government that could not secure parliamentary support for a major piece of legislation had the courage, honour and decency to do.

What we now know is that this Prime Minister is so desperate to cling to power that she is prepared to limp on without the policy that just days ago she said was absolutely vital to secure the security of this nation. What a sorry record this government has: 220 boats, 12,000 people and every single one of those boats a sign of policy failure. We have had those boats and we have had those people. We have had the riots and we have had the drownings. We have had these things because this government was not magnanimous enough to leave well enough along. It was not magnanimous enough to leave in place a policy that worked. The Howard government's policy stopped the boats, and for more than a decade this coalition has been absolutely crystal clear and absolutely consistent. We have a three-point plan to stop the boats—we have always had it; we will always have it. It is offshore processing at Nauru, it is temporary protection visas and it is the option of turning boats around where it is safe to do so.

By contrast, since the Pacific solution was scrapped, first of all we had the asylum-processing freeze, the most discriminatory immigration policy since White Australia—shame on members opposite. Then we had the East Timor solution, which sank somewhere in the Timor Sea because this Prime Minister did not know enough about East Timor to understand the different roles of the President and the Prime Minister. Then we had the Manus solution, which did not get anywhere because the Prime Minister was not prepared to ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs to get involved lest the foreign minister succeeded and showed her up. And, finally, we have had the Malaysian people swap, which is about to be dumped by a caucus that knows that if it proceeds it will destroy itself in this parliament.

Let us be absolutely crystal clear: the Malaysian people swap is a dud deal. It is a dud deal because it is a cruel deal for boat people and a poor deal for Australia. No self-respecting country would engage in a one-for-five people swap. It is not only a dud deal but also a deal that has been demonstrated not to work. Since it was announced, we have had 1,299 illegal arrivals by boat. Since it was signed, we have had 732 illegal arrivals by boat. Everyone is against the Malaysia people swap. This parliament, both houses, have condemned it. The High Court of Australia has struck it down. Many federal Labor MPs are obviously against it, to the extent of not being prepared to vote for it in this parliament. The Victorian Labor Party has condemned it at its conference. The Western Australian Labor caucus, including the next leader of the Western Australian Labor Party, has condemned it. There are no fewer than 26 Labor branches that have passed motions condemning this deal. But I tell you what, Mr Speaker, this Prime Minister is not going to drop the people swap because it is wrong; she is going to drop the people swap because she knows she will lose—that is why she is going to drop it.

On every single aspect of border protection policy this Prime Minister has been inconsistent. She supported temporary protection visas, and then she opposed them. She opposed offshore processing, and now she says she supports it. She supported turning boats around, then she opposed it, now she wants a virtual turnaround. She opposed sending people to countries that had not signed the UN convention. Now she says we must send people to a country which not only has not signed the UN convention but wants to cane people.

What a shabby, miserable, divided and directionless government this rabble have become. Have your caucus meeting, but admit you do not know how to deal with this problem and call an election.

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