Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to speak on this matter of public importance on border protection because it is critically important. I have listened to the contribution by the minister at the table and I have some sympathy for him. I understand Mr Clare is new to the portfolio and I understand that he has been delivered an absolute hospital pass by his predecessor. I am sure one of the first things he did when he became minister was to send a little note: 'Dear colleague, thank you for the hospital pass you sent me through your maladministration of the portfolio previously.' Maybe he saved himself time by using the proforma that the current Minister for Immigration and Citizenship used when he sent a little note to Senator Evans: 'Dear Senator Evans, thank you for the hospital pass you have given me through your maladministration of the portfolio.' I will not go too heavily on the minister at the table today because I am sure his failures are ahead of him. There will be plenty of time to deal with those in the future.

This debate is about the cuts that have been made to the Customs and Border Protection Service, which are a result of the fact that this government has lost control of our borders. It has had a budget blowout on immigration alone of $3.9 billion over the last three years. When you blow that much money, because you blow your borders so badly, these are the sorts of decisions a government is forced to take.

The minister at the table made reference to what the view of the New South Wales government was. He may not be aware of what the New South Wales Premier said in question time today. He said: 'It is time the federal government stopped burying its head in the sand about the porous nature of our borders and our customs service. It's time they stopped focusing on themselves and their factional and leadership issues and it's time they started to provide this city, this state and this nation with the effective control of our borders that people have a right to expect.'

They have a right to expect it because they got used to it under the previous Howard government. They got used to it. They were used to having a government that understood the importance of domestic national security matters and having strong borders—and having a commitment to strong borders—and having the resources in place and the policies in place to provide strong borders. There is a delusion on that side of the chamber about who is trusted to protect Australia's borders and ensure our domestic national security. It is the coalition that is trusted. It is not a theory; it is a fact. Our record is a fact. The government likes to talk about its theories and its failed policies. The coalition can simply refer to the fact. The fact is, the Australian people know that we got the job done, the policies we had worked, we will restore them and we will get the job done again if given the opportunity to do so in government. We need to understand why and how the failures on our borders caused by this government that have produced $3.9 billion in blowouts over the last few years have led to cuts being made in other areas that are putting other people at risk, as we mentioned in the House today. There were the government's decisions to abolish the Pacific solution and to abolish the processing centre at Nauru. There was the decision to reverse even the then Prime Minister's commitment to border protection before the election. Do you remember him—Prime Minister Rudd? At least 31 members on that side of the chamber remember him. They will remember that it was his commitment to turn back boats before the 2007 election. He walked away from that in a hurry.

Those in this House, and particularly those outside this House, will remember the asylum freeze that was announced by Senator Evans. That was a particularly good present that was left for the new minister for immigration after the election. It was something that led to an additional 1,200 Afghans being put into the system for six months to just sit there, which fuelled and fanned the dissension within the detention network. The Hawke-Williams review found that that played a key role in the build-up of pressures that led to the Christmas Island riots that happened a year ago this week, where the Christmas Island detention centre went up in flames. There was also the East Timor farce and there was the Malaysian failure. I refer to it as a failure because it did not work. Madam Deputy Speaker, I know you were not a great fan of the Malaysia policy of this government. There were many on that side of the chamber who were not fans of that policy.

See this speech in context