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

I can understand why the Manager of Opposition Business is fairly sensitive on this issue, as he holds the record for the highest number of illegal maritime arrivals in the nation's history.

But specific information, as I was seeking to explain, is used. It was used in the information that was provided by the previous government to provide an official proof of voyage for payment. It can also be used to decipher the posture of border protection assets. And it can be used to identify potential client pools, especially when nationalities are referred to.

I am not going to be part of a process, as a minister, that helps people-smugglers. I have spent the past four years dragging the previous government, kicking and screaming, towards restoring measures that they abolished, leading to chaos, cost and tragedy, to 50,000 illegal arrivals on more than 800 boats. There is a protocol in place. It has been put in place by the Joint Agency Task Force, headed up by Lieutenant General Campbell. I am not going to violate a process and undermine an operation that is stopping the boats. I am not going to assist people-smugglers, as those opposite are urging me to do. We are going to hold the line, we are going to protect the borders, we are going to make sure those borders are secure and we are going to make sure those boats are stopped. Each time members opposite wish to bring these matters into this place, I will remind them of the carnage they delivered on our borders.

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