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

I thank most sincerely the member for Solomon. She comes from a garrison city, and she knows personnel from Defence and the Customs and Border Protection Service very well. It is hard to think of a person who has been more passionate in this place about the Defence Force and about the way governments provide support to Defence and Australian Customs and Border Protection Service staff than the member for Solomon—I pay tribute to her—and it is no surprise that she would ask this question tonight about this very important issue.

We have been able to return that $558 million dividend to the budget. Labor's $11 billion blow-out in government was completely unsustainable, as the member for Solomon points out. This government is determined to continue the good work that we have started. We continue to stare down this threat every day. We know that the people smugglers are there; they are trying to put ventures together right now. We have been able to turn back boats where it has been safe to do so, and that is the absolute secret to our success. It seems that the Labor Party will never be able to bring themselves to do that.

People should not forget that before the last election—as the member for Solomon well remembers—and indeed before the 2007 election, Labor promised up hill and down dale that they would stop the boats, that they would be John Howard light, that they would not change anything in relation to border protection management. They promised that before the election. Let me make this prediction: they will make the same promise before the upcoming election. They will say that they have put in place a new package. The member for Corio will say that he has been around the world talking to the UNHCR and having cups of tea elsewhere, looking at global and regional solutions. There will be some big picture he will paint about how the Labor Party will preside over success in this area. Do not listen to what Labor says; look at what Labor does.

There were no children in detention when Kevin Rudd came to government in 2007. At its peak Labor had almost 2,000 children in detention in our country. Today that number is closer to 100, and we work each day to try and reduce it even further. That is what we do and that is what we continue to do. I pay tribute to the member for Solomon for being such an integral part of supporting our personnel, which ultimately results in success under Operation Sovereign Borders—and indeed in the measures that we put forward in this budget.

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