Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration and Border Protection) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Macquarie, and I acknowledge her hard work as the chair of the Joint Standing Committee on Migration. She is a great local member. She is a very strong voice for Macquarie in this place on matters relating to migration and national security. In this year's budget in this portfolio we were able to give back $500 million to the budget so that we can pay for the measures associated with childcare increases in the support for parents with kids; small business measures; measures for tightening biometric security at our borders; and a number of other budget measures, which of course were not possible when Labor were in power, because in this portfolio they had an $11 billion blowout because 52,000 people came on 800 boats. Not only is it a budget saving but, more importantly, there are the 1,200 people who drowned at sea under Labor. That death and carnage has now stopped under this government because we have been able to stop the boats. We have been able to turn back boats where it is safe to do so. At the ALP conference in a couple of weeks, the Leader of the Opposition, if he is worth anything, will get up and stand down Tanya Plibersek on the Left on this very important issue—

Ms Plibersek interjecting—

See this speech in context