Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Hansard source

What we have watched in recent times is the opposition leader and the member for Cook and indeed the member for Stirling walk away from this commitment. First it was three months. Fran Kelly in 2010 asked the Leader of the Opposition: 'So if you have not stopped them in three months?' He said: 'Oh, I think in three months we will make a very big difference.' Then it was between six and 12 months in October last year when he was asked: 'Can you be more specific? Would that be 12 months or six months?' The opposition leader said, 'Well, within those time frames.' Then it was 'a few months' again on 21 February this year. Then the member for Cook could not say when or how they would stop the boats. He said on 13 March in an interview on 2GB: 'I believe we can get back to the outcome that the Howard government achieved. I do not put any time frames on it and I am not about to. I am not about to make such forecasts. I would like to see it happen as soon as possible.' This is the new slogan of the opposition—it is 'Stop the boats as soon as we possibly can' or 'Stop the boats but I can't put a time frame on it' or 'Stop the boats because we would just like to do so'. The fact is that they have walked away from their slogan because as they get closer to the election they realise they have nothing in place to stop the vessels and they have not listened to the experts and they have not engaged with the region effectively.

As I talk about engagement with the region, let us think about what the shadow minister, the member for Cook, has done in his dealings with the region. Can you imagine a person who wants to be minister for immigration—although I am told he may not want to be minister for immigration; I hear that he is pleading to get out of the portfolio just in case they win. But just imagine this if we can. Let us imagine that you want to be minister for immigration and you need the region's support. Why don't you fly to a foreign country like Malaysia, stand on Malaysian soil, call a press conference and abuse the reputation of that country? That is effectively what the member for Cook did. He thought, 'What is a good idea? How do I get a regional solution to this regional problem? I think I'll fly to Malaysia, call a press conference and abuse of Malaysian government.' That is effectively what the member for Cook did when he visited Malaysia.

And what did the opposition leader do in relation to Indonesia? He has got a 'turn back the boats' policy. He meets the president of Indonesia, and does he raise the issue? He did not even ask the question: will you accept turning back the boats? Do you know why he did not ask the question, Deputy Speaker? Because he knows the answer is no. So here you have an opposition leader who says no to the country that is yes and yes to the country that says no. Why does he do that? Because he wants the policy to fail, he wants to see more boats because he works on his base political interests, motivated for personal gain—not motivated in the national interest, motivated for the wrong reasons, for the wrong purposes. Indeed, the opposition has shown its disregard for the national interest the entire time of this parliamentary term.

There must be a point where the opposition has to come clean about its policy, because stopping the boats ain't enough. All the qualifications and inconsistencies they come up with, all the assertions they make, they have absolutely no basis for putting them forward. The member for Stirling talks about stopping the boats. He may say that but you actually have to explain it. Let us think about it. We have no regional architecture in place; we have abused the Malaysian government—

Mr Keenan interjecting—

The member for Stirling will get his go in a minute.

Honourable members interjecting—

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