Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

Our policies are designed to stop this evil trade and to stop the deaths at sea, but we need a full suite of policies such as the full suite that was recommended to us by the Houston inquiry. Part and parcel of that was the arrangement we came to with Malaysia, and they would not come to the party in this parliament. That has been a very substantial problem. So I made that statement before because they are culpable—very culpable—in terms of the current arrival rate.

The government will do everything within its power to stem the boats—everything we can possibly do—but the one thing it will not do is tell lies to the Australian people, like the Leader of the Opposition about somehow turning boats back to Indonesia. He cannot do that, and he knows it.

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