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

I thank the member for Hughes, my good friend and colleague from the Shire. I also want to thank the Treasurer for his comments regarding our performance in the border protection portfolio. The Treasurer and I have many things in common, and one thing we have in common is backbone. The backbone you have seen displayed on our borders is the same backbone this Treasurer has put into the budget. That is in stark contrast to what we saw from those opposite.

I can update the House. It will come as no surprise to the House, I am sure, that since my update yesterday there have still been no successful people-smuggling ventures to Australia, and we are now in our sixth successive month of that being the case.

But it was not always thus. I am glad the Treasurer saw fit to reference the performance of the member for Watson and the performance of the member for McMahon—and I could even go to the member for Gorton—when it comes to backbone, or lack thereof, and their performance on the borders. I will remind the House. When the member for Watson was Minister for Immigration, 68 boats turned up—a total of 5,358 people. And he was only there for a couple of months! When the member for Gorton was Minister for Immigration, 183 boats turned up—a total of 12,386 people. That is what happened under the member for Gorton.

Mr Marles interjecting—

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