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

When the shadow minister spends a bit of time in this portfolio will probably understand some of the matters that are before him. But in relation to his claims: I have addressed the questions that he has raised this evening. But let me just deal with this last one on temporary protection visas.

Temporary protection visas deny the people smugglers' promise to those who arrived illegally prior to 19 July. And if the shadow minister does not understand that 30,000 people, who are the primary source of information about whether someone should seek to travel to Australia, is irrelevant in the flow of information and messaging back up the people-smuggling chain, then he has no idea about how this works. He really does not understand what the pool of information is that those who are sitting offshore in many other places around the world will draw on. He has no understanding about the role not only of those who have come but also the diaspora in Australia of those who have come and how the government's consistent approach to handling this issue, whether it is them, or people offshore or those who might seek to come who we would turn back, he simply has learnt nothing from Labor's failures while they were in government. And that is where they will remain. They will make proclamations that they are still for offshore processing until they decide they are not again, and the Australian people know where they stand because they just know what they are feeling and they know where they stand on this issue.

But there is a really important reason for why we have done what we did with Operation Sovereign Borders, which started on 18 September, almost nine months ago now. It was to restore integrity to our borders and to restore integrity to our immigration program. The questions asked by my colleagues, and the member for Brisbane in particular, and those asked by other colleagues go to the heart of the dividend that is paid as a result of the success of the policies of Operation Sovereign Borders. In this budget there is $2½ billion of savings. Now, that is in contrast to the $11.5 billion-plus in budget blow-outs that occurred under the previous government, and which would have continued to occur.

They were forecasting 15,600 arrivals at the time of the last election. They said they would fix the problem, but they were forecasting 15,600 arrivals—more than 600 boats! That is apparently a success when it comes to that Labor Party! Two-and-a-half billion dollars of savings; we are closing the detention centres that they opened. And they opened them because they had lost control of the borders. And those savings are going to save the budget some $283 million.

In addition to that, the humanitarian dividend is significant. Twenty thousand places in this financial year, in the budget year and over the forward estimates have been freed up under the refugee and humanitarian program, specifically in the special humanitarian program, which went from a program of almost 4,700 people when we left office to a program of just 500 under the previous government. Four thousand people a year were being denied a special humanitarian visa in this country who had gone through the proper process, had come through the right process and been denied because the previous government could not control the borders. Those 20,000 places have been created and quarantined in the program. They cannot be taken away.

One of the areas of the program which will also benefit is the one the member for Brisbane mentioned: the more than 1,000 places that have been provided to women at risk. Women in places of desperation around the world who are in need of these visas—the ones who are without a male partner in support and who often have children—are the most vulnerable and the most immobile. You do not see them on boats; they could never afford it or get out of the camp. What we have done with Operation Sovereign Borders has freed up the program to address their need. They have been the silent voices in this debate for the last six years, and their voices have been heard by this government because we have acted to protect our borders and to ensure that the opportunity of smugglers to peddle their evil trade and steal the places that were going to those women has been thwarted. It has been taken away.

Finally, the economic program of this budget as demonstrated in the migration program is enabling the program to deliver on the economic objectives of this country because the program now has integrity, and it has integrity thanks to Operation Sovereign Borders, which is opposed by those opposite.

Proposed expenditure agreed to.

Debate adjourned.

Federation Chamber adjourned at 21:07.

See this speech in context